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Light Finds A Way -- Even Through White Paint: Specially-prepared Light Moves Through 'Open Channels'
Materials such as milk, paper, white paint and tissue are opaque because they scatter light, not because they absorb it. But no matter how great the scattering, light is always able to get through the material in question. At least, according to the theory. Researchers Ivo Vellekoop and Allard Mosk of the University of Twente have now confirmed this with experiments. By shaping the waveform of light, they have succeeded in finding the predicted ‘open channels’ in material along which the light is able to move.
The results will soon be published in Physical Review Letters and are already available on the authoritative websites: ScienceNOW and Physics Today.
In materials that have a disordered structure, incident light is scattered in every direction possible. In an opaque layer, so much scattering takes place that barely any light comes out ‘at the back’. However, even a material that causes a great deal of light scattering has channels along which light can propagate. This is only possible if the light meets strict preconditions so that the scattered light waves can reinforce one another on the way to the exit.
Full article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080818082702.htmIn materials that have a disordered structure, incident light is scattered in every direction possible. In an opaque layer, so much scattering takes place that barely any light comes out ‘at the back’. However, even a material that causes a great deal of light scattering has channels along which light can propagate. This is only possible if the light meets strict preconditions so that the scattered light waves can reinforce one another on the way to the exit.
Source: sciencedaily.com
Credit image: courtesy of University of Twente