Captive Light Dream

2007/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

Light can slow down and remain, at least in theory. But how? British physicist Ortwin Hess has discovered that it can be done with metamaterials. These materials present a negative refractive index, the rays of light tilt with an angle when passing from air to water and deviate with being in a metamaterial deviate with an opposite angle. Hess has made calculations to find out what happens to light in a three-material system that has a metamaterial interspersed. The result is that the system slows down the light and also makes it depending on the thickness of the entire system. From a thickness, the light would be completely inside, yes, physically separating the rays of different colors. Somehow it would catch the rainbow within a special material. This material does not exist, but is believed to be in the process of existing.