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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/B000028/1
Title: Spin-like Orbital Angular Momentum (Visiting Fellowship Application)
Principal Investigator: Courtial, Dr JK
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: School of Physics and Astronomy
Organisation: University of Glasgow
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 May 2004 Ends: 31 July 2004 Value (£): 18,390
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Light-Matter Interactions
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Light beams (and anything else, like electrons or wheels) have angular momentum when they rotate. This angular momentum of light is interesting for many different reasons. It has, for example, been proposed as a possible force for micro-machine engines, it has been used in fundamental tests of quantum mechanics, and it has been proposed as a carrier of quantum information.Light beams can rotate in different ways, which then correspond to different types of angular momentum. For example, when the phase and intensity structure of a light beam rotates around the axis of the light beam, the beam has orbital angular momentum (OAM), whereas electric field vectors spinning on the spot (as they do in circularly polarised light) correspond to spin.In this project we intend to investigate light beams that rotate in a mixture of these two ways: we want the phase and intensity structure to do the rotating (like in OAM), and we want it to do this on the spot (which is spin-like). We believe we know how to create such light beams, but we would like to actually create them and study some of their basic properties experimentally. We also propose to investigate basic theoretical aspects of such light beams.We believe that the results of this project will make important contributions to fundamental optics.
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Organisation Website: http://www.gla.ac.uk