Corkscrew light promises higher optical-communication data rates
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6492/760
>"Optical vortices on demand Light has several degrees of freedom (wavelength, polarization, pulse length, and so on) that can be used to encode information. A light beam or pulse can also be structured to have the property of orbital angular momentum, becoming a vortex. Because the winding number of the vortex can be arbitrary, the channel capacity can be expanded considerably. Zhang et al. and Ji et al. developed nanophotonic-based methods for generating and electrically detecting light with arbitrary orbital angular momentum, a goal that has remained an outstanding challenge so far (see the Perspective by Ge)."
[...]
"By harnessing the properties of total momentum conservation, spin-orbit interaction, and optical non-Hermitian symmetry breaking, we demonstrate an OAM-tunable vortex microlaser, providing chiral light states of variable topological charges at a single telecommunication wavelength. The scheme of the non–Hermitian-controlled chiral light emission at room temperature can be further scaled up for simultaneous multivortex emissions in a flexible manner."
Opinion: If Physics needs its own grand unified theory, then certainly Light -- needs its own...
A careful codification of all of the properties of light and these properties' mathematical relationships with one another -- would be one heck of a starting step towards that eventual goal...
The fly in the ointment as I recall was that circular polarization required some additional quality gates for the physical fiber that most fiber doesn't meet. So while a lot of new fiber equipment has reused existing cable runs, this would likely require new fiber to be laid.
What happened?