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New Way of Observing Light May Boost Info Content

Posted by Cliff on from the dance-of-the-photons dept.

md_seymour observes: "Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA has a description and image of light that can twist as well as spin, based on research from Miles Padgett and Johannes Courtial of the University of Glasgow. They and their colleagues have apparently been able to sort individual photons by their orbital angular momentum. Since this characteristic of the photon is able to take on an infinite number of values, it may be possible to pack much more information into a light beam."

2 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Total energy and mass? by stonewolf · · Score: 3, Interesting


    Is orbital angular momentum (OAM) a bit of energy added to the photon, or is it just a redistribution of the "normal" energy of the photon? If it is a redistribution then does a photon with OAM have a different wavelength than a photon with the same energy but no OAM?

    Does generating a photon with OAM transfer angular momentum from the generator to the photon? That is does emitting an OAM beam cause the source to spin?

    Many questions that boggle my mind.

    Stonewolf

  2. Re:infinite? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I had a problem with that claim too.
    I think they should have said the number of encodable bits is reliant on the sensitivity of our measurments. otherwize one could say that a 5 foot long piece of rope has infinate encoding capacity.
    Well duhh,, 5 / 3 = 1.666666666666666666666666~~