Researchers show it’s possible to make photons that cross paths interact, paving the way for technology breakthroughs.
A research team at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) has demonstrated that it is possible to manipulate photons so that they can collide, interacting in new ways as they cross paths. Detailed in the journal
The Breakthrough and Its Foundation
The breakthrough occurred in the lab of Andrea Alù, Distinguished Professor and Einstein Professor of Physics at The City University of New York Graduate Center and founding director of the CUNY ASRC Photonics Initiative. It built upon another recent experiment that demonstrated time-reflections for electromagnetic waves.
“Our work is building on a series of experiments that show how we can create
Although photons would be expected to go through each other without any interaction, by triggering a time interface the scientists were able to demonstrate strong
The team’s efforts in developing methods to dictate how propagating electromagnetic waves interact and shape each other could bring benefits to wireless communications, imaging, computing, and energy harvesting technologies, among other advancements.
Reference: “Broadband coherent wave control through photonic collisions at time interfaces” by Emanuele Galiffi, Gengyu Xu, Shixiong Yin, Hady Moussa, Younes Ra’di and Andrea Alù, 14 August 2023, Nature Physics.
DOI: 10.1038/s41567-023-02165-6