Recent research has shown that it is possible to create a new form of light by linking light to one electron, thereby combining the properties of both. Bound light and an electron could have properties that could lead to circuits that work with packets of light - photons - instead of electrons, according to scientists at Imperial College London, who conducted the study.
It will also allow scientists to study quantum physics phenomena in which particles smaller than atoms are involved.
In conventional materials, light interacts with a variety of electrons present on and inside the material. But using theoretical physics to model the behavior of light and a newly discovered class of materials known as topological insulators, Imperial College researchers have figured out that it can interact with just one electron on the surface.
This allows you to create a pair that combines the properties of light and electron. Usually, light travels in a straight line, but when attached to an electron, it will follow its path on the surface of the material.
In a study published in Nature Communications, Dr. Vincenzo Giannini and his colleagues modeled such an interaction using a nanoparticle - a small ball less than 0.00000001 meters in diameter - from a topological insulator.
Their models showed that just as light takes on the properties of an electron and passes through a particle, so an electron takes on some properties of light. Usually, when electrons move through materials - for example, in an electrical circuit - they stop when they encounter a defect. But as Giannini's group showed, even if there were imperfect areas on the surface of the nanoparticle, the electron would still overcome them with the help of light.
If this can be applied to photonic circuits, they will be more reliable and less prone to degradation and physical defects.
“The results of this research will have a huge impact on how we imagine light. Topological insulators have only been discovered in the past decade, but they already provide us with new phenomena to study and new ways to test important concepts in physics,”says Giannini. And he adds that the phenomena he modeled in experiments can be observed using modern technology, and his group is already working with experimental physicists to implement this.
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He believes that the process that leads to the creation of a new form of light can be scaled to make such phenomena much easier to observe. Currently, quantum phenomena can only be seen by studying very small objects or supercooled objects, but the latest breakthrough may allow scientists to study these behaviors at room temperature.
ILYA KHEL