Quantum Whirlpool Created From Spiral Laser Beam

Physicists at Australian National University have engineered a spiral laser beam and used it to create a whirlpool of hybrid light-matter particles called polaritons.

“Creating circulating currents of polaritons – vortices – and controlling them has been a long-standing challenge,” says the leader of the team, theoretician Dr. Elena Ostrovskaya, from the Research School of Physics and Engineering.

“We can now create a circulating flow of these hybrid particles and sustain it for hours.”

more…