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Lasers Made of ‘Spacetime Wave Packets’ Are Breaking the Normal Rules of Light

Professor Ayman Abouraddy‘s paper “Anomalous refraction of optical spacetime wave packets” in Nature Photonics has been highlighted in an article in vice.com.

Refraction of wave packets

“One of the most basic properties of light is that it changes speed and direction in different substances, such as water or air. This process, known as refraction, explains why a glass prism splits light into many colors and why a pool may appear shallower than it really is when viewed from a deck or diving board. 

Now, scientists have managed to defy this photonic principle with a special laser made of “spacetime wave packets” that do not slow down in denser materials, according to a recent study published in Nature Photonics. In fact, this new class of lasers can actually accelerate in a dense medium, among its many other optical superpowers.”

Read more…

CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics

University of Central Florida
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