Published in Science: An Australian research team has developed a chip for the nano-manipulation of light, paving the way for next generation optical technologies, while also potentially enabling a deeper understanding of black holes.
While light travels approximately in a straight line, a light beam also spins and twists around its optical axis. A measure of this dynamic rotation is the angular momentum (AM) of light, which now can be controlled using the integrated nanophotonic chip.
For the first time, the research team from RMIT, Swinburne University and China's Jinan University achieved the on-chip manipulation of twisted light.
This opens new opportunities for using AM at a chip-scale for the generation, transmission, processing and recording of information.
And it could also help scientists better understand the evolution and nature of black holes.
This is because the work offers the possibility of full control over twisted light, including both spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM), as explained by project leader Professor Min Gu, who is deputy vice-chancellor for Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship at RMIT, and node director of CUDOS*.
Rotating black holes can impart OAM associated with gravitational waves. Therefore, the unambiguous measuring of the OAM through the sky could lead to a more profound understanding of the evolution and nature of black holes in the universe.
*CUDOS is the Australian Research Council’s Centre for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems