They observe the impulse of light

2011/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

They have shown that light can push objects like air aerodynamic objects

A team of researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York has announced in the journal Nature Photonics that light can cause an air thrust into an aerodynamic surface. A lightfoil structure has also been described that moves effectively with light.

It would be like an aerodynamic behavior of an argidynamic profile. Both profiles must have a higher pressure than the other side to generate force and therefore movement. In the case of aerodynamic profiles, the passage of air from the top faster than from the bottom, resulting in the pressure difference.

In the case of light, researchers found in computer studies that radiation can have a similar effect when colliding and reflecting against objects or crossing them. In semi-cylindrical tubes it was also observed that the effect is especially effective. In fact, in the computer they saw that much of the light that affects the tubes would take the united direction when leaving the object. Thus, in this area would generate the highest radiation pressure and the push.

To verify the veracity of what was deducted by the computer, a group of plastic tubes of a few micrometers long and semi-cylindrical shape were immersed in the water and emitted laser rays below. The tubes moved upwards due to optical levitation caused by laser light, but they also moved to one side. The researchers point out that this perpendicular movement is due to the optical impulse.