Scientists at the University of Vienna succeeded in encrypting the bending laser beam and allowed the bending laser pointer beam to travel up to 143 kilometers. This travel record set a new world record, almost 50 times higher than the previous record. This new breakthrough may bring revolutionary changes to satellite communication methods.
Light is an electromagnetic wave with crests and troughs. All the light waves that make up an ordinary laser have the same phase, so they can reach the crests or troughs synchronously. The curved beam is different. The different light waves in it have different phases, making it appear a spiral shape when traveling. This spirally curved laser beam has almost no capacity limit for encryption and transmission of information, making it an ideal choice for communications, especially satellite communications. .
However, the changing atmosphere will cause interference to information transmission, resulting in the transmission distance cannot meet the requirements of practical applications. In 2014, Anton Zellinger of the University of Vienna conducted an experiment of transmitting information by bending light over Vienna. As a result, the photos of Mozart and Boltzmann were successfully encrypted and transmitted 3 kilometers. But to be practical, curved light must transmit information at least tens of kilometers in an undisturbed free space.
This time, Zellinger led his team to the Canary Islands and chose two observatories 143 kilometers apart for experiments. They also encrypt and transmit more information by overlapping light waves of different degrees of curvature. As a result, the bending laser successfully encrypted the “HELLO WORLD!” message and carried it between the two observatories. When it reached the end, it was deciphered and found that, except for the final exclamation mark, it turned into a letter “P” and other information was intact. .
The new research has created a record for the longest distance that a bending green laser pointer transmits information, but the speed of encoding and deciphering information is not as fast as the Morse code used to send telegrams. Zellinger’s team will next use existing adaptive optics and other technologies to improve the information transmission and compilation speed of the curved light system. Alan Werner, a scientist at the University of Southern California who has long been committed to the research of curved optical communications, said: “The distance that curved light transmits information is indeed a big challenge, but the latest research proves that we can do it. In the future, it will bring us more What a surprise.”