It created the first material with a refractive index 0

For the first time physicists have developed a metamaterial with zero refractive index of light. This can lead to a new class оптических (photon) computers , in which information is passed on almost exclusively high velocity.

New metamaterial overcomes the limitations of existing designs photonic computers that have received photons convert to electrons, because of what is lost all the speed advantage. Here, photons can be manipulated in every way and is doing them different unusual things.

"The light is typically responds poorly to compression or processing, - says Eric Mazur ( Eric Mazur) from Harvard University, lead author of the research work - but this metamaterial can handle light transmission from one chip to another: compress it, bend, twist, modify the diameter of the beam from the macroscale to the nanoscale ».

The metamaterial is made of silicon pillars embedded in a polymer matrix and wrapped in gold foil.



According to the authors, the light waves in the material move "infinitely fast" without violating the laws of physics. Of course, under the "infinite" refers to the phase velocity of the wave, not the actual speed of light.



Everyone knows that the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second. But there is such a figure as the фазовая speed - speed of the wave crests in space along a given direction. For example, by ingestion of air into the water flattened light waves (sealed) by approximately 30%. That is, the phase velocity is reduced by 30% - respectively, the refractive index of water is approximately 1, 3.

What happens in a metamaterial with zero refractive index? Put simply, the place is quite strange things. The light wave as it straightens her disappear peaks and troughs, it turns into a straight line, the oscillations of which are factors of time, not space. Straighten the waves makes it easy to manipulate it without any loss of energy. In theory, these characteristics mean an almost infinite potential of the new metamaterial into the industry: from telecommunications to quantum computing. For example, quantum emitter in an environment where there is no phase advance, can emit photons, which are always synchronized in phase with each other, says Munoz Philip (Philip Munoz), one of the authors of scientific works:" It can also improve the confusion between quantum bits, because the wavelength of light coming have infinite length and efficiently distributed in the environment, allowing you to store even far from the intricacies of spaced particles ».

Scientific work «On-chip zero-index metamaterials» опубликована October 19th, 2015 in the journal Nature Photonics (pdf).

Source: geektimes.ru/post/264526/