Physics is full of surprises, and this time it gives us something really special: microscopic hurricanes made of light. In the heart ofAalto University, a team of researchers has found a way to create these tiny vortices of light to revolutionize data transmission. It's as if they've found a way to package information much more efficiently, allowing it to be sent through optical fibers a much larger amount of data than today. A discovery that could radically transform the world of telecommunications.
The Dance of Nanoparticles
In their groundbreaking study, the team led by Paivi Tower he manipulated something incredibly small: 100.000 metallic nanoparticles, each the size of one-hundredth of a human hair. But it's not their number that makes the difference: it's how they positioned these particles.
To be precise, the research team found that the key was not to look for the points of maximum interaction with the electric field, but quite the opposite. They introduced the particles into the “dead spots,” where the electric field is practically inactive.
We introduced particles into the dead spots, which turned off everything else and allowed us to select the field with the most interesting properties for applications.
Jani Taskinen.
The nature of “light vortices” in data transmission
A vortex of light is like a miniature hurricane: it has a calm, dark center surrounded by a ring of bright light. Just as the eye of a hurricane is calm because the surrounding winds are blowing in different directions, the eye of the vortex is dark because the electric field of the bright light points in different directions on different sides of the beam.
Future communications could be based on these principles to revolutionize the way we transmit information. The research, published in Nature Communications. (that I link to you here), represents a fundamental step towards new methods of data encoding.
The team demonstrated that this technique It could allow up to 16 times more information to be transmitted through current optical fibres.
The revolutionary potential of quasicrystals
The discovery is based on a particular design called quasicrystal. Christian Arjas, one of the leading researchers, theorized this approach before it was even experimentally realized.
“This research is about the relationship between vortex symmetry and rotationality, that is, what types of vortices can we generate with what types of symmetries,” he explains. The quasicrystal design, in other words, represents a perfect balance between order and chaos.
Practical applications of this technology will require years of engineering, but the potential is enormous. Data transmission could become much more efficient, opening up new possibilities for future communications.
Data transmission, future prospects in the field of communications
The research group of theAalto University is already looking further, focusing on applications in superconductivity and improving organic LEDs. The discovery opens up numerous possibilities for future research in topological optics.
As engineers work to make this technology practical and scalable, the communications world is preparing for a future where data transmission could be much faster and more efficient than we can imagine today.
La quantum physics It will reopen doors we thought were closed forever, revolutionizing the way we communicate and share information.
