Unveiling a Truncated Optical Lattice Associated with a Triangular Aperture Using Light’s Orbital Angular Momentum

We show that the orbital angular momentum can be used to unveil lattice properties hidden in diffraction patterns of a simple triangular aperture. Depending on the orbital angular momentum of the incident beam, the far field diffraction pattern reveals a truncated optical lattice associated with the illuminated aperture. This effect can be used to measure the topological charge of light beams.