Tampere University researchers found that light beams distort when reflected, revealing material properties. Their work on twisted light waves may advance optical measurement techniques.
Our everyday experience suggests that light reflected from a perfectly flat mirror produces an undistorted image. However, when the light field is structured in a more complex manner, small deformations actually occur.
Researchers at Tampere University have now observed these subtle distortions for the first time in the lab. Their findings confirm a theoretical prediction made over a decade ago regarding this fundamental optical effect. Furthermore, the study demonstrates how this phenomenon could be applied, such as in techniques for analyzing material properties.
Light is a wave. Although this simple statement has been known to scientists for over a century, new properties and applications of light waves are routinely discovered and explored by researchers in optics and photonics. At Tampere University, the Experimental Quantum Optics Group (EQO) studies the nuances of the shape – or structure, as it is often called – of light. The structure of light has become an important topic in modern optics, with advances ranging from the fundamentals of quantum physics to information science and optical communications.
In their latest work, the researchers have shown that the shape of a light beam is slightly distorted when it is reflected from a perfectly flat object such as a mirror. Although the deformation is very small, it carries significant information about the object itself, such as the material it is made of. This so-called topological aberration effect, predicted over a decade ago by researchers in the UK, has now been observed for the first time.
“Although the general idea of observing a deformation seems rather simple, it took us more than a year to perfect our experiment and adjust the original theory to distinguish the effect from all the other beam deformations that are natural to experimental research,” explains Associate Professor Robert Fickler, group leader of the EQO team.
Whirlpools of light and darkness
With the recent technological advances in the shaping of light waves, the field of structured light has boomed in recent decades. Much of the interest in the field is due to so-called twisted light waves, which not only travel at the speed of light, but also spin as they travel.
“What is curious in these twisted light fields is that they have points in them that are completely dark, optical vortices as we call them, like whirlpools in water that are themselves waterless. What we have done is to observe how these vortices thread and move around when the beam interacts with a flat object, and what we can learn from these movements”, adds Academy Postdoctoral Researcher Rafael Barros, leading author of the study.
The dynamics of vortices in optical fields has been the subject of long-standing research and is usually regarded as a complicated mathematical problem. In their work, the authors have investigated how the vortices of a twisted light field move when it is reflected from an object. They have shown that although each optical vortex moves in a complicated way, their collective movement is determined by the properties of the object in a simple and predictable way. The researchers point out that their work will inspire new ways of measuring the properties of materials with structured waves. This will bring a new twist to optical technologies.
Reference: “Observation of the topological aberrations of twisted light” by Rafael F. Barros, Subhajit Bej, Markus Hiekkamäki, Marco Ornigotti and Robert Fickler, 17 September 2024, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52529-6
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6 Comments
“Furthermore, the study demonstrates how this phenomenon could be applied, such as in techniques for analyzing material properties.”
I found this claim tantalizing and read the linked article. However, I did not find anything discussing this. Can anyone point out where this might be in the article?
Analysis method and its advantages are still highly speculative: an extract from the actual reseach paper: ”… properties of the material upon which the light is reflected, our results could be applied to advanced material characterisation techniques.”
Conclusion: awaiting further evidence from their future research papers.
Unlike classic ellipsometry, which is not speculative, and provides the complex refractive index of both transparent and opaque materials and the thickness of epitaxial thin films. They talk about “twisted light fields,” by which I suspect they mean is circularly polarized.
The mirrors that they refer to may well be very flat, but I doubt that they are “perfect.” Might they be detecting irregularities in the flatness of the mirrors? If so, then they are not finding a signal that is related to the unspecified material characteristics; instead, they are detecting topological anomalies.
When physics uses imagined things as the Formal Base and Evidential Base for research. What is the difference between physics and religion?
Memo 2410061143
Does light have perfect properties? It may or may not be perfect. Errors occur in complex situations because the duality of light (qvix.0,2) exists. However, when you understand the role theory, you can see the boundary line. The ordinary and dark matter systems, msbase and msoss, qpeoms, vix(black_hole) and vixx(smolas.neutron_star)…he.
Source1.Edit
The researchers observed a slight deformation of the reflected beam of light in a perfectly flat mirror. This was predicted 10 years ago. These findings, including the dynamics of optical vortices, show how the structure of light can provide insight into material properties.
We found that the light beam was distorted when reflected, revealing the properties of the material. Their work on twisted light waves can advance optical measurement techniques. Our everyday experience suggests that light reflected from a perfectly flat mirror produces an undistorted image. However, when the light field is structured in a more complex way, small deformation actually occurs. The researchers observed this subtle distortion.
Light is a wave. This simple statement has been known to scientists for more than a century, but new properties and applications of light waves have been routinely discovered and explored by optical and photodynamic researchers.
a whirlwind of light and darkness
The field of structured light has boomed in recent decades with recent technological advances in the formation of light waves. Much of the interest in this field is due to so-called twisted light waves that not only travel at the speed of light but also rotate as they travel.
“What’s interesting about this twisted field of light is the completely dark dots in it. What we call an optical vortex, it’s like a vortex in water without water. What we did is observe how these vortices intertwine and move when the beam interacts with a flat object, and what we can learn from these movements.
-The reason why light has the duality of wave and particle properties can be based on the role theory in its structure. Wave properties are linear concepts such as the electromagnetic waves of fermions with continuity of the msbase concept. By the way, particle properties are integer units of qpeoms’ mathematical bosons.
The role theory of the smaller superstring bar inside the unit is that the representative value of sms.vix.ain’s a.in in example 1. has a massive circle of neutron star smolas like a black hole. As we all know, the boss is just the one appointed among his men. The boss’s role governs the organization. Huh.
1.
The dynamics of vortices in optical fields has been a long-standing research topic and is generally considered a complex mathematical problem.
They showed that each optical vortex moves in a complex way, but their collective motion is determined by the properties of the object in a simple and predictable way.
-The unit of collective motion is a unit of qpeoms, such as Figure 1, which presents the vector value of 1 in which 1 is distributed on a plane. It has a simple and predictable chiral line-symmetric orbit that is meta-structured.
Example 1.
vix.a’6//vixx.a(b1,g3,k3,o5,n6)
b0acfd|0000e0
000ac0|f00bde
0c0fab|000e0d
e00d0c|0b0fa0
f000e0|b0dac0
d0f000|cae0b0
0b000f|0ead0c
0deb00|ac000f
ced0ba|00f000
a0b00e|0dc0f0
0ace00|df000b
0f00d0|e0bc0a
Researchers point out that their work will inspire a new way to measure the properties of materials with structured waves (msbase).
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
Source 1.
https://scitechdaily.com/new-physics-discovery-reveals-mirror-reflections-arent-as-perfect-as-scientists-thought/
New physics discovery reveals mirror reflection is not as perfect as scientists thought
The dynamics of vortices in optical fields has been the subject of long-standing research. Researchers have shown that although each optical vortex moves in a complicated way, their collective movement is determined by the properties of the object in a simple and predictable way.
VERY GOOD!
Please ask researchers to think deeply:
1. What is the difference between imagined particles and imagined God?
2. What are you exploring and searching for?
3. What does the physical phenomenon you observed explain?
4. What is the dirtiness and ugliness in academic activities?
and so on.
Scientific research guided by correct theories can help people avoid detours, failures, and exaggeration. The physical phenomena observed by researchers in experiments are always appearances, never the natural essence of things. The natural essence of things needs to be extracted and sublimated based on mathematical theories via appearances , rather than being imagined arbitrarily.
Everytime scientific revolution, the scientific research space brought by the new paradigm expands exponentially. Physics should not ignore the analyzable physical properties of topological vortices.
(1) Traditional physics: based on mathematical formalism, experimental verification and arbitrary imagination.
(2) Topological Vortex Theory: Although also based on mathematics (such as topology), it focuses more on non intuitive geometry and topological structures, challenging traditional physical intuition.
Extension of the Standard Model: Topological Vortex Theory points out the limitations of the Standard Model in describing the large-scale structure of the universe, proposes the need to consider non-standard model components such as dark matter and dark energy, and suggests that topological vortex fields may be key to understanding these phenomena.
Topological vortex theory heralds innovative technologies such as topological electronics, topological smart batteries, topological quantum computing, etc., which may bring low-energy electronic components, almost inexhaustible currents, and revolutionary computing platforms, etc.
Topology tells us that topological vortices and antivortices can form new spacetime structures via the synchronous effect of superposition, deflection, or twisting of them. In fact, mathematics does not tell us that there must be God particles, ghost particles, fermions, or bosons present. When physics and mathematics diverge, arbitrary imagination will make physics no different from theology. Topological vortex research reflections on the philosophy and methodology of science help us understand the nature essence of science and the limitations of scientific methods. This not only has guiding significance for scientific research itself, but also has important implications for science education and popularization.
Today, so-called official (such as PRL, Nature, Science, PNAS, etc.) in physics stubbornly believes that two sets of cobalt-60 rotating in opposite directions can become two sets of objects that mirror each other, is a typical case that pseudoscience is rampant and domineering. Please witness the exemplary collaboration between theoretical physicists and experimentalists (https://scitechdaily.com/microscope-spacecrafts-most-precise-test-of-key-component-of-the-theory-of-general-relativity/#comment-854286).
Let us continue to witness together the dirtiest and ugliest era in the scientific and humanistic history of human society. The laws of nature will not change due to misleading of so-called academic publications.