Laser vortex beam that twists faster as it moves

[ArcticDude]

"There’s a new kind of twisted light. A rotating “vortex beam” whose twist changes across the length of the beam has been created in the lab for the first time.

Researchers discovered in 1992 that a beam of light could have orbital angular momentum, meaning that the beam twists as it propagates forward, with each photon circling around the centre of the beam.

Now, Kevin Dorney at the University of Colorado Boulder and his colleagues have made light that not only twists, but has a different degree of twist along the length of the beam too."

New kind of light is a vortex beam that twists faster as it moves

A laser beam can be twisted and move like a vortex, and for the first time researchers have made one that has different twists along the length of the beam

www.newscientist.com

 

[WizardG]

Light is weird.........

 

[paul1598419]

I've been to the CU Boulder campus many times. They have done great physics there for many years.

 

[CDBEAM777]

Very Interesting !!! Thanks for the update !!!
SOOoooo...Does this mean...we can now "Get Screwed"...by a Laser Beam...it seems so !!! HAHAHHAaaa. ( Just yet another childish comment by CDB....Sigh )

OK....BUT...What a minute !!!! Hold on....IF the Beam has a C limit of 186,282 MPS....THEN...the Spinning Photons are …moving FASTER than C.... !!!
WHAT...My head hurts !! I am sure I am...off on something here...Angular travel + Vector travel....Non-additive ???? Whatever !
…." As though his ape's brain could understand the secret's of the Krell " HAHAHAHAHA !!!

CDB

 

[BowtieGuy]

Very interesting article, AD!
Thanks for sharing this twisted bit of information with us.

 

[OrangeDragon]

This article creates more questions for me than it answers.. is the "orbital angular momentum" another way of describing a constantly changing polarization? Or is this completely independent from polarization?

 

[Alaskan]

We have radio antennas which twist the propagating waves, it's called circular polarization, this seems like the same thing to me, EM waves are EM waves, light and radio both made of them. Ka-Band satellite uses circular polarization, i.e. Dish Network.

 

[RB astro]

"There’s a new kind of twisted light.

Hey AD, I've always said that Schrödinger's cat was bipolar....

…." As though his ape's brain could understand the secret's of the Krell " HAHAHAHAHA !!!

CDB

"The total potential here must be nothing less than astronomical. " - Doc Ostrow

 

[RedCowboy]

So light is behaving like a particle or does it just seem that way ? Circular polarization ok, but twisted light that changes it's twist rate as it travels would be energy behaving like a particle and I'm not sure that's what's really going on.

" A photon at the front of the pulse orbits the beam’s center slower than a photon at the back. "

Photon orbiting the beams center ? No I don't get it either.

 

[Alaskan]

Changing twist rate is something else, with antennas that would only happen if the wavelength were changed. My apes brain needs to look into this more.