6/24/2014 A new metamaterial gives visible light a nearly infinite wavelength | IFLScience

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/new-metamaterial-gives-visible-light-nearly-infinite-wavelength 1/8
PHYSICS
A new metamaterial gives visible light a nearly
infinite wavelength
October 22, 2013 | by Anonymous
photo credit: http://abios77.deviantart.com/art/Light-Circle-208527587
250

22

5

3

19
It is the phase velocity and group velocity of light that determines how it propagates in a
material. Phase velocity dictates how the peaks and valleys of the wave move in the
material, while the group velocity describes the transport of energy. Einsteins laws dictate
that the transport of the energy of light can not be faster than the speed of light, and so the
group velocity is limited.
There are no physical limitations to the phase velocity though: when the phase velocity is at
zero there is no movement of the peaks and valleys of the wave but when it is infinite the
wavelength diverges to very large values. No materials with these properties exist in nature.
Researchers, from the FOM Institute AMOLF and the University of Pennsylvania,
constructed a metamaterial made of a unit cell structure much smaller then the wavelength
of light, by stacking silver and silicon nitride nanolayers. This new material allows light to
feel the optical properties of both layers. As the permittivity of silver is negative and that of
silicon nitride is positive, the combined material has a permittivity which is effectively equal
to zero. The light therefore experiences zero resistance, and propagates with an infinite
phase velocity; the wavelength of the light is therefore nearly infinite.
The material was constructed using focused ion beam milling, a technique that allows the
user control over the materials structure at the nanoscale level. A specially built
interferometer showed that light did propagate through the metamaterial with no significant
change of phase, essentially corresponding to an almost infinite wavelength.
Choose your poison
Editor's Blog
Environment
Technology
Space
Health and Medicine
The Brain
Plants and Animals
Physics
Chemistry
silicon dioxide
supplier
jin-neng.com
Professional food and feed
additive manufacturer in China.
Search by keyword find
Follow 92.5K f ollowers

Follow
132k
Share Tweet Reddit
More Science! by Tabool a
Synthetic magnetic
monopoles have
been created in the
lab
Scientists have
made light appear to
break Newtons third
law