Innovadores supplement of El Mundo echoes the new research into ultraviolet structured light

The newspaper El Mundo in its supplement Innovadores Castilla y León publishes a report on the new investigation being carried out by the ALF – USAL Group.

This research demonstrates the production of a type of laser beam in the extreme ultraviolet with a special design in phase and polarization.

In this type of beam, the polarization distribution is linked to the phase structure. These light forms are called vector vortices, because the structure is analogous to that of a whirlpool with different directions of vibration. It is, therefore, a light beam that combines the properties of the orbital angular momentum of light associated with the optical vortices with those of the spin angular momentum of the light particles, which defines the polarization.

The study from which the results presented in the publication have been obtained is the result of the collaboration between the ALF – USAL Group with the Paris-Saclay University and the Colorado School of Mines and is part of the European project ERC ATTOSTRUCTURA (851201)