We discovered the unusual properties of light

Japanese, Ukrainian, Korean and American scientists have discovered a new and unusual properties of light. The authors published a study in the journal Nature Communications, briefly with him can be found at RIKEN, a major Japanese Institute of Physical and Chemical Research.

Exploring the dynamic characteristics of evanescent waves, scientists have discovered that its momentum and spin are the transverse components, which are oriented at right angles to the direction of propagation. Physicists have also discovered that the transverse component of the spin is independent of the polarization and helicity. Properties investigated waves, as the authors state, are the opposite of those of ordinary waves.


Evanescent wave propagates at the interface of two media with different properties ( refractive index and dielectric constants ); its intensity decreases exponentially with distance from this boundary .In the usual case, the light rays are transferred momentum in the direction of the motion; particle has helicity , which is determined by the spin projection on the direction of movement and takes two values ​​: positive ( right-helicity particle) and minus ( left-helicity ) unit . Spin - a quantum characteristics of elementary particles , sometimes called intrinsic angular momentum ; measured in whole ( for bosons ) and half-integer ( fermions ) Planck constant ( with a dash ) . 

Evanescent waves are used, for example, in high-precision microscopes. By based technologies such evanescent waves are interested and military, who are interested in technology and reduction in visibility of objects radars. New properties represent a good opportunity to explore the physical features that were previously inaccessible to observation.