Optical centroid orbiting metrology

Abstract: Optical interferometry has dramatically advanced the development of modern science and technology. Here we introduce an interesting centroid evolution phenomenon of orbital angular momentum (OAM) interference fields with broken rotational symmetry, and establish a novel interferometric paradigm by fully exploiting centroid orbiting information. The centroid positions and their geometric trajectories can provide more detectable information in a two-dimensional plane to sense the interferometric perturbations, compared with the conventional interferometry. We first investigate centroid orbital evolution under the inclined angle perturbation that allows for ultra-sensitive angle distinguishment with arc-second resolution. We also show centroid ellipse evolution under spatial phase perturbation that enables geometric characterization of arbitrary OAM superpositions on modal Poincar\'e spheres. Furthermore, based on the angle subdivision of centroid orbiting, we demonstrate the environmentally robust nanoscale displacement measurement with polarization synchronous detection, and particularly the high-resolution, fast, and large-range linear movement monitoring using commercial four-quadrant photodetectors. This novel centroid orbiting interferometry may open new opportunities to advance metrological technologies beyond the conventional interferometers.