Optical vortices on demand Light has several degrees of freedom (wavelength, polarization, pulse length, and so on) that can be used to encode information. A light beam or pulse can also be structured to have the property of orbital angular momentum, becoming a vortex. Because the winding number of the vortex can be arbitrary, the channel capacity can be expanded considerably. Zhang et al. and Ji et al. developed nanophotonic-based methods for generating and electrically detecting light with arbitrary orbital angular momentum, a goal that has remained an outstanding challenge so far (see the Perspective by Ge). The nanophotonic platform provides a route for developing high-capacity optical chips. Science , this issue p. 760 , p. 763 ; see also p. 707