WILL IT BE POSSIBLE TO LEVITATE OBJECTS BY LIGHT?
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WILL IT BE POSSIBLE TO LEVITATE OBJECTS BY LIGHTwww.originaldailynews.com |
The optical levitation on a nanoscopic scale has been honored by the latest Nobel Prize in Physics for its inventor Arthur. However, US researchers claim that they have gone a step further by developing a method to levitate macroscopic objects using a laser beam.
It is already known about magnetic levitation and even acoustic levitation, as well as quantum levitation. It will now also count with the optical levitation. The latter is provided by researchers at Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in the U.S.A. They announce having developed a technique that allows them to levitate objects by the force of light only, though their work remains theoretical.
Indeed, optical tweezers have been developed several decades ago. They have already allowed researchers to move and manipulate nanoparticles thanks to the radiation pressure, exerted by a perfectly focused laser beam. As it has been already mentioned, this is a technique that has earned the Nobel Prize in Physics to its inventor Arthur Ashkin in 2018.
Caltech researchers wanted to go further. Their method could levitate macroscopic objects of different shapes and sizes, be it micrometer to meter. The secret is behind nanoscale patterns drawn on the surface of the object in question. Patterns interact dynamically with light to keep the object in balance. In this case, there is no need for a precise and focused light. Moreover, it even becomes possible to use a light source located millions of kilometers away from the object that one wishes to manipulate.
Thus, researchers are dreaming of a spacecraft powered and accelerated by a laser beam based on Earth. Lightened of any fuel, it could reach high speeds and, perhaps, reach the nearest planets that are located outside our Solar System. "We didn’t reach the invention yet, but the basics are there," asserts Harry Atwater, a Professor of applied physics at Caltech.