At Aalto University’s Department of Applied Physics, researchers have discovered a new method of creating tiny hurricanes of light known as vortices that can carry information. This breakthrough involves manipulating metallic nanoparticles to interact with an electric field, resulting in the creation of vortices within a beam of light. By using a design method based on quasicrystals, the team was able to generate vortices with varying levels of symmetry and rotationality. This discovery is a significant advancement in the field of physics and has the potential to revolutionize the way information is transmitted.
Vortices, in this context, are similar to hurricanes within a beam of light, with a dark center surrounded by a ring of bright light. The researchers found that by manipulating the arrangement of nanoparticles in specific geometric shapes, they could create vortices with different levels of complexity. This research has shed light on the relationship between symmetry and rotationality in vortices and has unlocked a method for creating geometric shapes that can theoretically support any kind of vortex. The design created by the team is described as being halfway between order and chaos.
In their study, the researchers manipulated 100,000 metallic nanoparticles to create their unique design, each roughly the size of a hundredth of a single strand of human hair. The key to their discovery was finding where the particles interacted with the electric field the least, allowing them to select the field with the most interesting properties for applications. This opens up a wealth of future research opportunities in the topological study of light and could lead to new ways of transmitting information using light, particularly in the telecommunications industry.
The practical applications and scalability of the team’s design may take years of engineering efforts to develop. However, the discovery represents the early steps towards a powerful way of transmitting information using vortices of light. By sending these vortices down optic fiber cables and unpacking them at the destination, it is possible to store information in a much smaller space and transmit a significantly higher amount of information at once. The potential increase in information delivery over optic fiber cables could be up to 8 to 16 times the current capacity, according to one researcher’s optimistic estimate.
The Quantum Dynamics group at Aalto University is at the forefront of research into superconductivity and improving organic LEDs, with their pioneering study made possible by the OtaNano research infrastructure for nano-, micro- and quantum technologies. The research findings were published in Nature Communications in early November, marking a significant step forward in the field of physics and opening up new possibilities in the transmission of information using light-based vortices.
