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Phoenix666 writes:

Shining a light through opaque materials seems impossible. And yet, researchers at the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science (Utrecht University) and the University of Twente have managed to increase the transmission of light through an opaque material by shining it along special paths. This could lead to a better understanding of the transport of light through materials such as skin. The researchers published their results in the prestigious journal Optics Express on 7 November, 2016.

Light diffusion is a phenomenon that occurs when light waves come into contact with an uneven surface or in an object with an inhomogeneous structure. This diffusion makes it impossible to see through skin, paper or clouds, for example. These materials are largely opaque, and only a small percentage of the light can penetrate through them. And yet these materials do have open channels, special paths through the material that the light waves can follow, no matter how thick the material is. Utrecht Ph.D. student Jeroen Bosch has located these open channels to send much more light through an opaque material.

In order to discover precisely how the light should be projected on the material, the researchers "played ping pong" with the light. "We send the light through the material in a random manner, and then we use data about the scattering of the light to send it along the same path in a slightly different manner," Bosch explains. "That way, more light passes through the material." By repeating the process several times – sending the light back and forth through the material – the researchers discovered what shape the light wave must have in order to make its way through the material.

I wonder if this was how light was made to come out of Rudolph's nose? But more seriously, could this have use in diagnosing skin ailments?

Original Submission