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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Light does a Möbius strip twist

Photons trapped inside a special ring must travel two laps before reaching their starting state.
Scanning electron microscope image of a photonic crystal microring resonator

Light must travel twice around a notched, miniature ring for the light waves to regain their initial phase. Credit: Xiyuan Lu/NIST/University of Maryland

Physicists have trapped light inside a miniature ring so that it needs two round trips to get back to its initial configuration, like an ant that must make two circuits around the surface of a Möbius strip to return to its start1.

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Nature 611, 428 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03570-2

References

  1. Wang, M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 186101 (2022).

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