Open AccessDoing the Waltz with Light
Author(s) -
RitschMarte Monika
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
optik & photonik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2191-1975
pISSN - 1863-1460
DOI - 10.1002/opph.201500009
Subject(s) - spiral (railway) , waltz , optical tweezers , bundle , angular momentum , physics , optics , enhanced data rates for gsm evolution , computer science , materials science , quantum mechanics , engineering , telecommunications , acoustics , mechanical engineering , composite material
Light with orbital angular momentum can be compared to a bundle of spaghetti held together firmly and twisted in the middle. Such optical spiral waves have numerous applications. For example, they can be used to selectively sort particles with optical tweezers. In microscopy, they enable edge enhancement, and in quantum cryptography, spiral waves allow for more information to be entangled.