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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @12:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-surfable dept.

I know what you're thinking after you read that title: If the wavelength is infinitely long, isn't it a line rather than a wave?

In 2015, researchers, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) developed the first on-chip metamaterial with a refractive index of zero, meaning that the phase of light could be stretched infinitely long. The metamaterial represented a new method to manipulate light and was an important step forward for integrated photonic circuits, which use light rather than electrons to perform a wide variety of functions.

Now, SEAS researchers have pushed that technology further - developing a zero-index waveguide compatible with current silicon photonic technologies. In doing so, the team observed a physical phenomenon that is usually unobservable—a standing wave of light.

The research is published in ACS Photonics.

There's a lot more in the full story about the difficulties of proving the wavelength is infinite and what can be down with this new material with a refractive index of 0.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:30PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:30PM (#579815)

    Infinite wavelength?

    Isn't that what an electrician would call DC?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:58PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:58PM (#579836)

    Isn't that what an electrician would call DC?

    An uneducated one, maybe.
    An educated one will call DC just a stationary value for the current.

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:49PM (#579888)

      I call you a bunch of shit-for-brain ACs.