title: Light's twist.
abstract: That light travels in straight lines is a statement of the obvious. However, the energy and momentum flow within light beams can twist to form vortices such as eddies in a stream. These twists carry angular momentum, which can make microscopic objects spin, be used to encode extra information in communication systems, enable the design of novel imaging systems and allow new tests of quantum mechanics.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy , University of Glasgow , Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
authors.forename: Miles
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Padgett
keywords: optical vortex; orbital angular momentum; structured light