Twisted Electrons
Optics & Photonics Focus
Volume 12 Story 3 - 26/1/2011

Twisting phase

The phase of an electron or optical vortex twists spirally around the direction of propagation of the beam. Because of this spiral movement, the light waves cancel each other out at the center of the beam, so that the optical vortex looks like a doughnut, a ring of light with a dark hole at its center.
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Twisting phase. The phase of an electron or optical vortex twists spirally around the direction of propagation of the beam. Because of this spiral movement, the light waves cancel each other out at the center of the beam, so that the optical vortex looks like a doughnut, a ring of light with a dark hole at its center.