If you think you know what dignity is, think again. An international team of scientists recently revealed something that could appear in a science fiction book: the shadow cast by light.
Researchers in Canada and the US have shown that under certain conditions, a laser—a small beam of intense light—can behave like an object by blocking other light and emitting a shadow. This unexpected result, detailed in a study published November 14 in the journal Optica, could have important implications for technologies that already use lasers, such as the fiber optic cables used in HD televisions and high-speed Internet. Simply put, it challenges our understanding of what dignity is.
“Laser light creating a shadow was thought to be impossible since light often passes through other light without interacting,” said Raphael A. Abrahao of Brookhaven National Laboratory in a statement to Optica. “Our demonstration of a visible counter-effect invites us to rethink our perception of dignity.”
The experiment was the result of a lunchtime discussion about how some 3D models treat laser beams as solid cylindrical objects and include shadows, the researchers explained in a statement. They wondered if this could be done in a lab.
During the experiment, the team shot a green laser into a ruby crystal, illuminating it with a blue laser aligned with the green. Simply put, a high-powered green laser has created parts of a ruby crystal that can absorb a lot of the blue laser, creating a shadow in the shape of the green laser.
How did they know it was a shadow? It met all the usual criteria: it was visible to the naked eye, it matched the area it was thrown on, and it matched the shape and form of the object it threw (green laser).
The team also measured the contrast of the shadow in relation to the power of the laser beam—more precisely, how bright it can make the shadow—and achieved a large variation similar to the “darkness” of a tree’s shade on a hot day.
However, “the laser shadow effect requires a ruby to mediate it,” the scientists wrote in the study, “which raises the interesting question of whether the photons in the laser material themselves block the illuminating light or whether the atoms in the laser material. ruby .” In other words, they weren’t entirely sure whether it was the laser that created the shadow or the ruby.
However, the display increases the possibilities of controlling one laser using another. While the practical application of this may not be immediately apparent in everyday life, it certainly prompts us to take a closer look at the shadows—or lack thereof—in Hollywood laser duels.
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