Scientists Found a Way to Send Data Through Distorted Light

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Free-space laser communications promise fiber-like data rates without requiring a physical cable, making them attractive for satellites, remote locations and other environments where laying fiber is difficult. The atmosphere, however, creates a persistent problem. Changes in temperature and air density distort a laser beam as it travels, potentially scrambling the properties used to encode information.

Researchers from Wits University and the University of Bordeaux have demonstrated a different way to address that problem. Instead of trying to reconstruct a distorted beam at the receiver, they encoded information into topological properties of light designed to survive the distortion.

Topology deals with characteristics that remain unchanged even when something changes shape. A common analogy is a coffee mug and a doughnut: both contain one hole, so mathematically one can be continuously reshaped into the other without changing that defining property.