Physicists from the group of Professor Alexander Szameit from the University of Rostock demonstrated a novel type of mechanism that can prevent light waves from spreading. The physical effect was too weak to fully arrest wave expansion. Physicists have shown that light can be Localization across a wide range of spatial length scales. The journal Science Advances published their discovery.
Phil Anderson surprised the international scientific community by predicting that an electrical conductor can turn into an insulator when the atomic crystal order is sufficiently shaken up. In the jargon of physicists,disorder can pin the electrons down and prevent any electrical currents from entering the material. This physical phenomenon can only be explained by quantum mechanics, where electrons are treated as waves. Classical settings can also be affected by this effect, since it applies to sound waves and light beams.
The properties of light and its interaction with matter are dealt with in the research of the physics professors. Light waves may show Anderson localization if the disorder is close to them. This new type of disorder only contains periodic distributions with certain wavelength.
Sebastian Weidemann, who is a PhD student at the Institute for Physics, says that one would expect that only those waves whose spatial distributions somehow matches the length scales of the disorder can be affected by it.
The group of Professor Szameit is led by Dr. Mark Kremer.
In contrast, the recent theoretical work from the Technion team suggested that the propagation of waves could be dramatically affected by invisible disorder.
Alex Dikopoltsev from the group of Professor Segev describes the effect when light waves interact multiple times with the invisible disorder.
The physicists from Rostock and Israel collaborated to demonstrate a new mechanism for the first time. Our optical networks are arranged in a way that mimics the spread of electrons in materials. Sebastian Weidemann, who conducted the experiments with Dr. Mark Kremer, explains how they were able to observe how invisible structures can successfully ensnare light waves.
The discoveries could lead to a new generation of synthetic materials that harness disorder to suppress currents, whether light, sound or even electrons.
More information: Alex Dikopoltsev et al, Observation of Anderson localization beyond the spectrum of the disorder, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn7769 Journal information: Science Advances
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