Scatterings
Optical Lift Could Steer Solar Sails and Micromachines
Tiny objects can experience a type of “optical lift” from a uniform beam of light.
The RIT team, including (left to right) Grover Swartzlander, Alan Raisanen, Tim Peterson and Alexandra Artusio-Glimpse
Humans have known how to make nautical sails for millennia and aerodynamic wings for more than a century. Four scientists have now demonstrated that tiny objects can experience a type of “optical lift” from a uniform beam of light (Nature Photon. 5, 48).
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