New research published today seeks to push the discovery that light can be tied in knots to the next level. Dr Anton Desyatnikov from the Nonlinear Physics Centre at The Australian National University is part of an international team of scientists who are designing knots in light, with potential applications in advanced modern optics, laser beams and even quantum computing. Using concepts from mathematics and physics the model Dr Desyatnikov and his colleagues have explored creates optical vortices with dark cores in a bright laser beam, that can then tangle and form links and knots. “Apart from their curiosity value, what’s really interesting and useful about these knots of darkness is that they show you what the power flow is doing,” Dr Desyatnikov said. “It is part of the incredible progress science is making in the field of optics, we’re beginning to do things with light that would have once seemed impossible.” (via Beautiful physics: Tying knots in light)
