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Register a new userSnells law for surface electrons: Refraction of an electron gas imaged in real space
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On NaCl(100)/Cu(111) an interface state band is observed that descends from the surface-state band of the clean copper surface. This band exhibits a Moire-pattern-induced one-dimensional band gap, which is accompanied by strong standing-wave patterns, as revealed in low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy images. At NaCl island step edges, one can directly see the refraction of these standing waves, which obey Snells refraction law.
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We present experiments on slow shear flow in a split-bottom linear shear cell, filled with layered granular materials. Shearing through two different materials separated by a flat material boundary is shown to give narrow shear zones, which refract at the material boundary in accordance with Snells law in optics. The shear zone is the one that minimizes the dissipation rate upon shearing, i.e.a manifestation of the principle of least dissipation. We have prepared the materials as to form a granular lens. Shearing through the lens is shown to give a very broad shear zone, which corresponds to fulfilling Snells law for a continuous range of paths through the cell.
Snells law, which encompasses both refraction and total internal reflection (TIR), provides the foundation for ray optics and all lens-based instruments, from microscopes to telescopes. Refraction results when light crosses the interface between media of different refractive index, the dimensionless number that captures how much a medium retards the propagation of light. In this work, we show that the motion of self-propelled particles moving across a drag discontinuity is governed by an analogous Snells law, allowing for swimmer ray optics. We derive a variant of Snells law for neutral swimmers moving across media of different viscosities. Just as the ratio of refractive indexes sets the path of a light ray, the ratio of viscosities is shown to determine the trajectories of swimmers. We find that the magnitude of refraction depends on the swimmers shape, specifically the aspect ratio, as analogous to the wavelength of light. This enables the demixing of a polymorphic, many-shaped, beam of swimmers into distinct monomorphic, single-shaped, beams through a viscosity prism. In turn, beams of monomorphic swimmers can be focused by spherical and gradient viscosity lenses. Completing the analogy, we show that the shape-dependence of the TIR critical angle can be used to create swimmer traps. Such analogies to ray optics suggest a universe of new devices for sorting, concentrating, and analyzing microscopic swimmers is possible.
We show that a gas of relativistic electrons is a left-handed material at low frequencies by computing the effective electric permittivity and effective magnetic permeability that appear in Maxwells equations in terms of the responses appearing in the constitutive relations, and showing that the former are both negative below the {it same} frequency, which coincides with the zero-momentum frequency of longitudinal plasmons. We also show, by explicit computation, that the photonic mode of the electromagnetic radiation does not dissipate energy, confirming that it propagates in the gas with the speed of light in vacuum, and that the medium is transparent to it. We then combine those results to show that the gas has a negative effective index of refraction $n_{rm eff}=-1$. We illustrate the consequences of this fact for Snells law, and for the reflection and transmission coefficients of the gas.
Conformational isomers or conformers of molecules play a decisive role in chemistry and biology. However, experimental methods to investigate chemical reaction dynamics are typically not conformer-sensitive. Here, we report on a gas-phase megaelectronvolt ultrafast electron diffraction investigation of {alpha}-phellandrene undergoing an electrocyclic ring-opening reaction. We directly image the evolution of a specific set of {alpha}-phellandrene conformers into the product isomer predicted by the Woodward-Hoffmann rules in real space and time. Our experimental results are in quantitative agreement with nonadiabatic quantum molecular dynamics simulations, which provide unprecedented detail of how conformation influences time scale and quantum efficiency of photoinduced ring-opening reactions. Due to the prevalence of large numbers of conformers in organic chemistry, our findings impact our general understanding of reaction dynamics in chemistry and biology.
A quantum vortex dipole, comprised of a closely bound pair of vortices of equal strength with opposite circulation, is a spatially localized travelling excitation of a planar superfluid that carries linear momentum, suggesting a possible analogy with ray optics. We investigate numerically and analytically the motion of a quantum vortex dipole incident upon a step-change in the background superfluid density of an otherwise uniform two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate. Due to the conservation of fluid momentum and energy, the incident and refracted angles of the dipole satisfy a relation analogous to Snells law, when crossing the interface between regions of different density. The predictions of the analogue Snells law relation are confirmed for a wide range of incident angles by systematic numerical simulations of the Gross-Piteavskii equation. Near the critical angle for total internal reflection, we identify a regime of anomalous Snells law behaviour where the finite size of the dipole causes transient capture by the interface. Remarkably, despite the extra complexity of the surface interaction, the incoming and outgoing dipole paths obey Snells law.
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