Shaping twisted light with atom-thin crystals
Manipulating vortex light at the nanoscale offers the potential for novel technologies
Los Alamos scientists have discovered a way to precisely control twisted beams of light — known as optical vortices — at the ultimate limit of material dimensionality. By doing so, they can adjust not only the light’s spectrum but also its topology, all at the nanoscale. The journal ACS Nano featured the work on its cover.
Read the paper
Why this matters: Twisted light carries unique properties that could be used to pack more information into optical communication systems, enable more resilient quantum key distribution and allow for higher-dimensional quantum computing.
How they did it: The team’s method uses single-layer materials called van der Waals crystals.
- The team mixed multiple laser pulses in a two-dimensional quantum material, producing new twisted vortex light through nonlinear effects such as difference-frequency generation, sum-frequency generation and four-wave mixing.
- The atomic thinness of the crystals makes it possible to control both the spectrum and the elementary structural properties of the generated vortex light field across a wide spectrum in an ultracompact platform, beyond the limits of traditional bulk materials.
- The work leverages Los Alamos’ experimental and theoretical expertise in nonlinear optics, ultrafast spectroscopy and 2D quantum materials.
Funding: Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Los Alamos, DOE NNSA Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program and DOE NNSA Laboratory Residency Graduate Fellowship. Work was primarily performed at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science user facility.
LA-UR-25-30295
Share
Stay up to date
Subscribe to Stay Informed of Recent Science, Technology and Engineering Highlights from LANL
Subscribe NowMore STE Highlights Stories
STE Highlights Home
A surprising use for distorted data to glean hidden laws
Scientists explore the use of metastable data for machine learning to study complex systems
When magnetism becomes superconductivity's ally
In nickelate thin films, superconductivity vanishes — then reappears — as the magnetic field grows stronger
Making tiny glass parts? Try printing them
Los Alamos method builds small glass components layer by layer
Valley fever’s far-flung travels captured by machine learning
Los Alamos scientists study the genomes of fungi in complex environments to understand their impact
Society of Petroleum Engineers honors Los Alamos scientist for high-volume peer reviews
Meng is associate editor of 2 journals
Proton radiography team receives NNSA Defense Programs Award of Excellence
Plutonium experiments support the nation’s nuclear weapons program