A simple way of sculpting matter into complex shapes

Science Daily  August 12, 2022 Researchers in the UK modeled propagation of far-red-detuned optical vortex beams through a Bose-Einstein condensate using nonlinear Schrödinger and Gross-Pitaevskii equations. They showed the formation of coupled light-atomic solitons that rotate azimuthally before moving off tangentially, carrying angular momentum. The number, and velocity, of solitons, depends on the orbital angular momentum of the optical field. Using a Bessel-Gauss beam increases radial confinement so that solitons can rotate with fixed azimuthal velocity. According to the researchers the model provides a highly controllable method of channeling a BEC and atomic transport…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE 

New devices produce and detect twisted light

Physics World  May 19, 2020 Development of a dynamically tunable OAM light source is a critical step in the realization of OAM modulation and multiplexing. An international team of researchers (USA – University of Pennsylvania, Northeastern University, Italy, Spain) harnessed the properties of total momentum conservation, spin-orbit interaction, and optical non-Hermitian symmetry breaking, demonstrated an OAM-tunable vortex microlaser, providing chiral light states of variable topological charges at a single telecommunication wavelength. The scheme can be further scaled up for simultaneous multivortex emissions in a flexible manner. The work provides a route for the development of the next generation of multidimensional […]