The light is twisted into Möbius strip

Mobius band - the simplest one-sided object. It is easy to make a strip of paper, if you connect the opposite ends, first turning over one of them. These mathematical structures are used in various fields of science and art: from Escher's lithographs to the Mobius electric resistor , but they are almost never found in nature.



Scientists from the Institute of Light Physics of the Max Planck Society (Erlangen, Germany) for the first time in the world managed to turn a ray of light into Möbius strip .



The work of Peter Banzer (Peter Banzer) with colleagues proves the assumption made by the Israeli physicist Isaac Freund (Isaac Freund) in 2005. He predicted that one could manipulate the polarization of light and turn it into different geometric shapes : cones, spirals, Möbius bands, etc.



In 2010, Freund offered a way to test his theory: to prepare two beams with different polarization, so that a pre-calculated interference appeared. This interference leads to a change in polarization.

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Peter Bantser and colleagues achieved the desired interference of two polarized green lasers using gold nanoparticles smaller in size than the wavelength of the green laser. The result is a polarization Möbius strip type structure with three or five twists.



This is the first experimental evidence in history that Möbius polarization ribbons do exist. The proof of the phenomenon opens the door to the practical use of light with altered polarization in different applications: for example, you can construct optical tweezers for manipulating tiny particles of matter.