Spatio-temporal light springs: extended encoding of orbital angular momentum in ultrashort pulses

We introduce a new class of spatio-temporally coupled ultrashort laser beams, which are obtained by superimposing Laguerre-Gauss beams whose azimuthal mode index is correlated to their frequency. These beams are characterized by helical structures for their phase and intensity profiles, which both encode the orbital angular momentum carried by the light. They can easily be engineered in the optical range, and are naturally produced at shorter wavelengths when attosecond pulses are generated by intense femtosecond Laguerre-Gauss laser beams. These spatio-temporal "light springs" will allow for the transfer of the orbital angular momentum to matter by stimulated Raman scattering.