Twisted Photons: The Next Frontier in Optical Communications
The internet data traffic capacity is rapidly reaching the limits imposed by optical fiber nonlinear effects, having almost exhausted the available degrees of freedom needed to orthogonally multiplex data. Therefore the need urges to develop new methods in order to avoid the upcoming capacity crunch using classical communications channels. In this regard, recent results have suggested that the use of the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons as an additional degree of freedom is potentially unlimited in the number of achievable orthogonal states, therefore presenting itself as a possible major technological leap for future communication networks.