Phys.org November 1, 2024
The guiding and transport of energy, for example, of electromagnetic waves, underpins many modern technologies, ranging from long-distance optical fibre telecommunications to on-chip optical processors. It requires localizing the waves or particles in the confinement region, such as total internal reflection at a boundary. An international team of researchers (UK, USA – University of Arizona) introduced a waveguiding mechanism that relies on a different origin for the exponential confinement and that arises owing to the physics of diffusion. They demonstrated this concept using light and showed that the photon density could propagate as a guided mode along a core structure embedded in a scattering opaque material, enhancing light transmission by orders of magnitude and along non-trivial trajectories. According to the researchers this waveguiding mechanism could also occur naturally, for example, in the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and along tendons in the human body… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Photon density mode-guiding experiments. Credit: Nature Physics, 1 November 2024Â