The secret of “clouds and fog”: British scientists find a new way to “bend” light from the clouds – IT Home

IT House reported on November 9 that physicists from the University of Glasgow in the UK were inspired by the phenomenon of clouds scattering sunlight and developed an innovative technology that can effectively guide and even “bend” light.

This technology is expected to achieve major breakthroughs in areas such as medical imaging, cooling systems and even nuclear reactors. The relevant research results were published in the journal “Nature Physics” on November 1 (IT House attached DOI: 10.1038/s41567-024-02665-z).

In simple terms, the “waveguiding” effect the team discovered is similar to that of fiber optic cables, but it relies on the scattering of light rather than the process of reflection. Here, light is transmitted through a solid core of weakly scattering material, which is wrapped in another material that scatters more strongly. This difference in scattering properties between materials is able to confine light within the core and allow it to be conducted with unexpectedly high precision.

Professor Daniele Faccio of the Extreme Light Research Group at the University of Glasgow said: Altocumulus clouds are usually bright white at the highest point and dark gray at the lowest point. This is because sunlight is scattered through countless water droplets inside the cloud layer. When light is scattered through clouds it decays exponentially, making the bottom darken and the top lighten and whiten due to the reflection of light.

“We started thinking about whether we could exploit this scattering effect in a controllable way and use it to create a path to guide light through the scattering material.”

So the team used a 3D printer to create a highly scattering opaque white resin structure with a low scattering core and began experimenting with it. They found that the amount of light transmitted through the low-scattering core increased by more than 100 times compared to the structure without the low-scattering core. They demonstrated the phenomenon with straight and curved structures, and both exhibited this effect.

The team also developed a comprehensive mathematical model to explain the diffusion physics that underpins their results. It is worth noting that this model is very similar to the equations that explain the transfer of heat through solid materials. Because of this theory, the researchers expect their new technology to have wider uses.

That is to say, in addition to light, this research can also be used in areas such as guiding heat, which is expected to open up new applications for thermal management in computing systems. In addition, it can confine particles such as neutrons rather than light waves, so it could also find applications in nuclear technology.

Dr. Kevin Mitchell, lead author of the paper and a member of the Extreme Light Research Group, said: “The strength of this study is that we took a comprehensive approach to explore the possibilities of completely new methods of guiding light. We started with a key question and carried out experimentally Demonstrate and then prove using rigorous mathematical methods. Now that we have established a solid practical and theoretical foundation, we will continue to explore how to find new ways to use it.”

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