Observation of the branched flow of spatially incoherent light in dish soap

Bob Yirka is a writer for Phys.org.

The first experimental observation of the branched flow of spatially incoherent light was made using liquid dish soap. The group describes their experiments in a paper published in the journal Physical Review X.

Light moving through a disordered media can lead to branching, where some part of the beam can take one path around an object while another part can take another path. Light can move through channels of light. The researchers used liquid dish soap as a medium.

The team shined a light through a plate of glass after applying liquid dish soap to it. As the light moved through the soap, they took pictures from above. The researchers added some dye that grew brighter as it was struck by more light, which was applied using an optical fiber.

The researchers were able to observe the light strike a dense portion of the soap, then split and create two channels. As the light hit other parts of the soap, they split and went on and on until the light hit the opposite edge. The researchers note that the effect was similar to a lightning strike.

The researchers noted that the light can travel in any direction, which allowed it to travel up toward the camera. Some of the light coalesced after splitting, and some of it was not in sync, so they conducted an experiment to find out what happened. By adjusting the light source, they were able to see that in areas where the light was in sync, it grew brighter, and in areas where it was not in sync, it grew darker.

More information: Anatoly Patsyk et al, Incoherent Branched Flow of Light, Physical Review X (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.12.021007 Journal information: Physical Review X

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