Light vortices spur debate between physicists and engineers

BBC : A heated debate has arisen over a paper in the New Journal of Physics about a technique that potentially allows for increase data transmission rates via light waves. The paper’s authors claim that extra data can be encoded in light by defining the mode of the orbital angular momentum. (A paper on a similar technique was published recently in Science.) Whether the physicists have done anything new and whether the technique will be effective have been discussed in a number of journals. Several electrical engineers have argued that the two modes the researchers used re-create a data transmission technique outlined in the 1970s called “multiple input, multiple output.” They also argue that any attempt to increase the number of modes used will fail.