Scientists Create New Material that Can Twist Light Itself

Scientists have uncovered the secret to twisting light at will. They've created a new metamaterial that shows extraordinary properties that's not typical of regular materials.

"Our material can put a twist into light--that is, rotate its polarization--orders of magnitude more strongly than natural materials," said Mingkai Liu, one of the researchers, in a news release. "And we can switch the effect on and off directly with light."

The metamaterials are formed from a pattern of tiny metal shapes, which have been dubbed "meta-atoms." In order to twist light, the researchers used pairs of C-shaped meta-atoms; one was suspended above the other by a fine wire. When light was shined onto the pair, the tope one rotated and made the system asymmetric.

"Because light affects the symmetry of our system, you can tune your material's response simply by shining a light beam on it," said Liu. "Tunability of a metamaterial is an important step towards building devices based on these artificial materials."

But what kind of practical applications would this metamaterial have? It would have plenty, according to the researchers. It's the latest step in the development of photonics, which are the faster, more compact and less carbon-hungry successor to electronics.

Electronics are estimated to account for about two percent of the global carbon emissions. If scientists can integrate photonics, then this footprint could be reduced significantly. Already, light carried by fiber optics has replaced electricity for carrying signals over long distances. These latest findings could help further photonics, which could be a boon for the environment and for consumers.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.