Tiny spheres of silicon can control magnetic side of light, paving way to novel optical devices
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - 09:00
in Physics & Chemistry
Light is an oscillating wave of electric and magnetic fields. The way the electric field component interplays with the atoms in a material largely determines how light interacts with matter. With visible light, however, the influence of the magnetic component is usually much smaller. Arseniy Kuznetsov at the A*STAR Data Storage Institute, Singapore, and co‐workers have now created tiny spheres of silicon that can strongly interact with the magnetic field of visible-wavelength light. These engineered 'magnetic materials' enable new ways of controlling light at the nanoscale.