Re-imagining Fiber Optics With Orbital Angular Momentum Chips and Laser Beams!

Developed by researchers in China and the United Kingdom, a new type of microchip has the ability to send out laser beams. These beams have the unusual property of Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), or orbital angular momentum. The new chips have implications for the future of optical communications technology.

Optical Communications
Fiber-optic technology has been a fixture of digital communications for many years. The technology has been refined over time to allow larger volumes of data to be sent more rapidly. Networks currently utilize different frequencies of laser light to increase the bandwidth available in a single fiber optic cable. One data stream is sent using one frequency, the second using another and so on.
Researchers hope to improve on this still further by exploiting photons with angular momentum – photons that travel in a twisted or spiral path. It’s theorized that data speeds could be increased, since the same frequency could be used for two or more data streams if the photons making up the stream had different angles of momentum.
Related Research
In a separate but related development, a conference in Los Angeles saw the unveiling of a new device: a means to twist two spiraling beams of laser light together and then untwist them (multiplexing and demultiplexing). The existence of a device for multiplexing twisted light beams indicates that the new OAM chip will have important real-world applications. Siyuan Yu, a researcher at the UK’s University of Bristol, commented: “OAM appears to be the last parameter of light that we haven’t explored so much.”
Creating Twisted Light
According to Siyuan Yu, producing a corkscrew of light necessitates a means of shifting a laser’s phase in a specific way. The device announced at the Los Angeles conference required multiple waveguides to direct the laser light in a spiral. The new microchip requires only a single waveguide, making it less complicated to produce.
Possible Applications
It may be possible for twisted OAM laser light to provide a means for microchips to ‘talk’ directly with computers. OAM light might also be used to detect the ‘handedness’of molecules.
Conclusion
At present, the potential applications of OAM remain somewhat speculative. There is still plenty of room for improvement, especially in the area of energy efficiency. If the latest results are any indication, however, OAM laser light may well be the future of optical communications.