Spiral-shaped 'light fan' adds new twist to laser-driven plasma accelerators

(Phys.org) --For the past few decades, physicists have been studying the phenomenon of "twisted light," which is light that is twisted like a corkscrew along its axis of travel. Due to the twisting, the light waves at the center of the axis cancel out, resulting in a ring of light with a dark spot in the center. Although it may sound like somewhat of a novelty, twisted light has applications in laser-driven plasma accelerators and plays a role in several astrophysical phenomena such as pulsars, ...