Bessel beam TRACTOR BEAM technology

Posted May 25, 2012 by Johnny2x in Science

Another example of us getting close to technology that was once considered completely Sci-Fi.

Bessel beam “tractor beam” concept theoretically demonstrated

Researchers at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have now proven the theory behind the concept, demonstrating how a tractor beam can be realized in the real world – albeit on a very small scale.

Haifeng Wang at the A*STAR Data Storage Institute and colleagues studied the properties of Bessel beams, which, unlike normal laser beams, don’t diffract or spread out as they propagate. While light will usually be scattered backwards when a laser beam hits a small particle in its path, pushing the particle forward, the A*STAR team showed theoretically that light from a Bessel beam scatters off particles that are sufficiently small in a forward direction. This means that the particle is pulled back towards the observer.

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