There's Nothing Wrong With Your Fundamental Mode, Do Not Adjust Your Picture

Sunday, March 22, 2015 - 13:20 in Physics & Chemistry

 Most people don't realize that light can take different shapes. In the fundamental mode, light energy is most intense at the center and gradually fades towards the edge of the beam. Light also has higher order modes. For example, the energy pattern can look like a donut, with most of the energy contained in a ring, and none in the hole or middle. Scientists create higher order modes by shining light through crystals and in recent years passing light along optical microfibers or nanofibers to manipulate particles has gained popularity in research labs because it could some day have applications in physics and biology.  read more

Read the whole article on

More from

Learn more about

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net