Sunday 6 March 2011

Is pulling objects with light possible? How far away are we from tractor beams?

It is a known fact that light has the ability to push objects away. This is used in the concept of solar sails, which I explained in the first post on this blog.

In a new development though, researchers from Hong-Kong and China have calculated what is needed for a laser to pull instead of push. This can not be achieved with normal lasers, instead the researchers used what is known as a Bessel beam. They have a few rather unusual properties, for example they can re-assemble themselves. With conventional lasers, if you place an obstruction in their path they stop, whereas Bessel beams continue behind the object.
This allows the energy of the beam to be precisely controlled, and allows them to place more energy behind an object than in front of it, pushing it towards the source of the beam.

A close up, head on, view of a Bessel beam. (Credit: California Institute of Technology)


Rather than in science fiction however the effect is only predicted to occur over small distances, and will therefore mainly impact particle science. We unfortunately won't be able to use this to levitate or pull enemy space ships into our hangar, but it is fascinating none the less.

"Light can indeed pull a particle," the researchers wrote.

31 comments:

  1. WOW didn't knew how far our science is today...
    thanks

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  2. really? pull objects with light? interesting.

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  3. This is quite amazing, I wonder how long it will take until we start developing this further.

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  4. wow I never heard of bessel beams that is a fascinating effect

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  5. Bessels are really bizzare!

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  6. Ahh, I just love stuff like this, it's awesome to see technology improve

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  7. Cool! Can't wait for major adavancements in this field :P

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  8. Really interesting read!

    It's going to be cool to watch how this advances over the years.

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  9. You blew my mind! Thanks for sharing

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  10. DAMN!! I wanted to pull things like in Dead Space... ;_;

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  11. Soon we can all have our own death stars too!

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  12. I heard about this. Star Trek is slowly becoming reality.

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  13. One step closer to gravity gun?

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  14. this bugged my mind. what a fantastic post.

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  15. Now all we have to do is make A LOT of them and tape them together.

    Tape can fix anything.

    And I mean anything.

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  16. Jesus.. sometimes reality surprises me. This is so awesome

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  17. Reassembling lasers? Bloody hax, that's awesome

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  18. The only way is foward, 10 years from now every piece of technology you use today will be obsolete.

    Curiosity and problem soolving is what seporates us from the animals.

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  19. that would be WICKED!!!

    following :)

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  20. interesting stuff. i'm assuming that's bessel as in bessel functions, no?

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  21. I want to be pulled... BY LIGHT!

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  22. pulling a particle with light? check. now we just have to scale it up to people size ie. lots and lots of particles.

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