
Geometry of intricately fabricated glass makes light trap itself - headalgorithm
https://phys.org/news/2020-06-geometry-intricately-fabricated-glass.html
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peter_d_sherman
>""We had to build the fabrication facility in our lab to precisely carve the
three-dimensional waveguides through the glass, a process called femtosecond
laser writing," said Sebabrata Mukherjee, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn
State and first author of the paper. "The ability to write three-dimensional
waveguides is crucial to making the device topological, a property that is
confirmed experimentally by observing the 'protected' one-way flow of light
along the edge of the device."

Through a process called the "Kerr effect," the properties of the glass are
changed due to the presence of the intense laser light. This change in the
glass mediates an interaction between the many photons, which usually do not
interact, propagating through the array. As the power was increased, the light
collapsed into a beam that didn't spread out (i.e., diffract), but rather
rotated in spirals."

 _This article is now in my Top 10 all-time favorites on HN._

Why? There's a lot to unpack here.

This article needs to be re-read (by me at least!) numerous times in the
future, because there's a lot that potentially has to do with optical/photon
lithography, nanotechnology, waveguides, analagous phenomena in physics (i.e.,
electrons, photons), and a whole lot more... a treasure trove of goodies, to
phrase it one way!

