This twisting characteristic, known
as orbital angular momentum (OAM), has been exploited by researchers in the past, with some showing that it can be used to transmit 2.5 terabits of data per second — the carrying capacity of more than 66 DVDs — through an optical fibre.
Because the wires interact with one another through gravity, they can exchange
orbital angular momentum between them, rather like the transfer of movement between the gear bearings and the axle of a bicycle.
In this latest work, the team performed the first experimental demonstration of entanglement swapping and teleportation
for orbital angular momentum (OAM) states of light.
The new metasurface connects two aspects of light, known
as orbital angular momentum and circular polarization (or spin angular momentum).
«Our angular accelerating fields rely on combinations of
orbital angular momentum — so - called twisted light,» says Forbes.
Detection of an object's rotation by exploiting
the orbital angular momentum of light may find applications in remote sensing and astronomy.
According to a new analysis, the frame dragging of a black hole should put a detectable twist on nearby photons by imparting a trait known as
orbital angular momentum.
But in a 2003 paper, astronomer Martin Harwit noted that observing
the orbital angular momentum from astrophysical sources could have numerous useful applications, including detecting and characterizing black holes.
The orbital angular momentum is distinct from polarization, which relates to the orientation of a light wave.
A fundamental characteristic of those quantum properties — which include polarization and
orbital angular momentum — is that they can exist in multiple states at the same time.
One such pattern set is
the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light.