Precision spectroscopy of X-ray polaritons
Tuesday, May 3, 2016 - 08:40
in Physics & Chemistry
When light interacts with matter, it may be deflected or absorbed, resulting in the excitation of atoms and molecules; but the interaction can also produce composite states of light and matter which are neither one thing nor the other, and therefore have a name of their own – polaritons. These hybrid particles, named in allusion to the particles of light, photons, have now been prepared and accurately measured for the first time in the field of hard X-rays by researchers of DESY, ESRF in Grenoble, Helmholtz Institute in Jena and University of Jena. In the journal Nature Photonics, they describe the surprising discoveries they made in the process.