Light twisted into a Möbius strip

Mobius strip - the simplest one-sided object. Its easy to make strips of paper, if you connect the opposite ends of pre-turning one of them. These mathematical structures are used in various fields of science and art: from Escher's lithographs to electric резистора Mobius , but they almost never meet in nature.

Scientists from the Institute of Physics of light Max Planck Society (Erlangen, Germany) for the first time in the world managed to свернуть a ray of light in the Möbius strip .

The work of Peter Bantsar (Peter Banzer) with colleagues proves the assumption that Israel did physicist Isaac Freund (Isaac Freund) in 2005. He predicted that the polarization of the light can be manipulated and fold it in different geometric shapes : cones, spirals, Mobius strip etc.

In 2010, Freund proposed a method to test his theory: prepare two beam different polarization that occurred previously calculated interference. This interference leads to a change in polarization.

Peter Bantsar colleagues achieved the desired interference between two polarized green lasers using gold nanoparticles smaller than the wavelength green laser. The result is a polarization structure type Mobius strip with three or five twists.

This is the first in the history of experimental evidence that the polarization of a Möbius strip really exist. The proof of the phenomenon opens the door to the practical use of light with an altered polarization in different applications: for example, it is possible to construct a оптический tweezers to manipulate tiny particles of matter.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/245090/