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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?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @02:01PM
an inhomogeneous structure
The word you are looking for is heterogenous.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday November 10 2016, @05:56PM
"Homogenous" and "heterogenous" are (I was surprised to learn) English words, but they don't pertain to this story.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/homogenous [oxforddictionaries.com]
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/homogenous?r=75&src=ref&ch=dic [dictionary.com]
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/heterogenous?r=75&src=ref&ch=dic [dictionary.com]
https://siteman.wustl.edu/glossary/cdr0000044282/ [wustl.edu]
Perhaps you meant "homogeneous" and "heterogeneous"; "inhomogeneous" seems fine to me as a synonym for the latter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @06:01PM
Hell, it isn't our fault dictionaries are written by pompous nitwits who couldn't phonetically spell their way out of a papier bagge.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday November 10 2016, @06:33PM
What would those guys say about an "opaque" material, when light can go through?
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:52PM
Homogenous is frequently used as a synonym for homogeneous, as even your first link notes. And similarly, heterogenous is frequently used as a synonym [merriam-webster.com] for heterogeneous.
Yes, the more technical folks tend to reserve the "-genous" versions for biology, but few English speakers (even most educated ones) make that distinction.
As for inhomogeneous, it's a much rarer word (usually occurring in technical writing), but it's not quite used the same as heterogeneous. Heterogeneous means composed of different sorts of things, whereas inhomogeneous is often used in situations were homogeneity might be expected or something, so the inhomogeneous nature is a deviation/abnormality. Heterogeneous, on the other hand, is a more neutral word for all cases of mixed composition.