Physicists have distorted light, like black holes: how successful they have been

Physicists have distorted light, like black holes: how successful they have been

Researchers used a special crystal to bend the path of light, like a black hole. This phenomenon is called pseudogravity. The new crystal can bend light like a black hole, causing the light to deviate from its normal path. This phenomenon is called pseudogravity. The authors of the new study believe that it will be useful in the next generation of 6G communication technology: it will transmit information wirelessly at extremely high speeds.

Because the crystal mimics what happens when light passes through black holes and other extremely dense cosmic objects, the new technology could be used to study quantum gravity. This theory would combine quantum mechanics and Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity (GR). Hi-Tech wrote about the efforts of scientists in this direction. According to general relativity, light and other electromagnetic waves are influenced by gravity. This effect is called gravitational lensing. Astronomers regularly use it to study massive space objects such as quasars. It is difficult to recreate such an effect in the laboratory due to the enormous volume required. But scientists have long suspected that they could mimic this phenomenon using crystalline materials.

The authors of the new study used a photonic crystal – a solid structure whose dielectric constant or inhomogeneity changes periodically, the period of which is equivalent to the wavelength of light. Gradually, scientists deformed these crystals, breaking their lattice. Then they shined rays of light through them and watched them deflect. “Just as gravity changes the orbits of objects, we have found a way to refract light inside certain materials,” the scientists explain. Controlling light in this way is a potential avenue for the next generation of communications technology, which will require information transmission in the terahertz range or above 100 gigahertz (5G technology’s maximum frequency is 71 gigahertz ). Researchers believe that creatively manipulating light is one way to achieve these frequencies.

source: https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.108.033522