Optical vortex

An optical vortex (also known as a photonic quantum vortex, screw dislocation or phase singularity) is a zero of an optical field, a point of zero intensity. Research into the properties of vortices has thrived since a comprehensive paper by John Nye and Michael Berry, in 1974, described the basic properties of "dislocations in wave trains". The research that followed became the core of what is now known as "singular optics".

In an optical vortex, light is twisted like a corkscrew around its axis of travel. Because of the twisting, the light waves at the axis itself cancel each other out. When projected onto a flat surface, an optical vortex looks like a ring of light, with a dark hole in the center. This corkscrew of light, with darkness at the center, is called an optical vortex.

The vortex is given a number, called the topological charge, according to how many twists the light does in one wavelength. The number is always an integer, and can be positive or negative, depending on the direction of the twist. The higher the number of the twist, the faster the light is spinning around the axis. This spinning carries orbital angular momentum with the wave train, and will induce torque on an electric dipole.

This orbital angular momentum of light can be observed in the orbiting motion of trapped particles. Interfering an optical vortex with a plane wave of light reveals the spiral phase as concentric spirals. The number of arms in the spiral equals the topological charge.

Optical vortices are studied by creating them in the lab in various ways. They can be generated directly in a laser, or a laser beam can be twisted into vortex using any of several methods, such as computer-generated holograms, spiral-phase delay structures, or birefringent vortices in materials.

An optical singularity is a zero of an optical field. The phase in the field circulates around these points of zero intensity (giving rise to the name vortex). Vortices are points in 2D fields and lines in 3D fields (as they have codimension two). Integrating the phase of the field around a path enclosing a vortex yields an integer multiple of 2π. This integer is known as the topological charge, or strength, of the vortex.

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