Fiber optics allow for the communication of data at the speed of light.
But the amount of data that can be sent along any optic fiber is limited by how much information you can encode into the light wave traveling through it.
Currently, optic fiber technology uses several different properties of light to encode information, including brightness, color, polarization and direction of propagation.
But if we want to cram even more information through optic fiber, we need to use other features of light to encode more information, without disrupting currently used properties.
Such a feature could help boost the bandwidth of optic fiber technology, including our internet speeds.
Detecting the twist
If the light wave traveling through the optic fiber is twisted helically—like a spring—then it has angular momentum, which is a measure of its momentum when it rotates around a point.