Superpositions of asymmetrical Bessel beams

We considered nonparaxial asymmetrical Bessel modes of the first and second types, which differ from a conventional symmetrical Bessel mode by a real-valued shift along one Cartesian coordinate and an imaginary shift along another (both shifts are equal in modulus). The first- and second-type Bessel modes differ only in signs of the shift and, therefore, have different orbital angular momentum (OAM) (integer or fractional). Addition and subtraction of complex amplitudes of two identical asymmetrical Bessel modes of the first and second type lead to light beams with the same integer OAM equal to the topological charge n of the original mode, but with different transverse intensity distributions, which depend on the shift magnitude. This proposed method allows controlling of the OAM of the beam with simultaneous changing of its shape, i.e., for matching with the object being trapped. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America