Flights travelling supersonically experience large drag caused by shock waves, leading to a considerable increase in fuel consumption. Mounting a spike in front of the blunt body can mitigate this effect, but its aspect ratio is often limited by structural constraints, such as vibrations and mechanical stress. Now Paul-Quentin Elias and co-workers have shown an alternative solution, replacing the rigid spike with plasma filaments formed by ultrashort laser pulses.
The role of this immaterial spike was demonstrated by a test model placed in a Mach 3 supersonic wind tunnel. Intense femtosecond infrared laser pulses emerged from the front, leading to a sudden creation of a short-lived plasma column and leaving behind a long-lived hot and thin neutral air channel of reduced density. A transient reduction of more than 50% of the drag induced by the laser pulse was observed. Further adjusting the direction of the laser resulted in a net asymmetric drag, which may offer a means of control.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, Y. Immaterial spike. Nature Phys 14, 1156 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0381-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0381-8