In fact, even though single photons always travel in straight lines, it turns out you can make them bend! (Note that this light couldn't actually bend around a corner. Using these methods, you can do all kinds of neat tricks, including helping telescopes see through clouds These specific wave shapes are especially useful for science, medicine, and communication applications.įor more visually interesting shapes, people usually use holographic plates or adaptive optics, which give you precise control over the phase and intensity of the beam at each point. For example, current communication networks use optical fibers to send signals of light in specific pulses and mode shapes nice pictures of these mode shapes can be found on Wikipedia at. One standard way of changing the shape of a light beam is to confine it in a "wave-guide", which is basically a specific size, shape, and kind of material used to force light to take some specific profile. (If you also consider quantum properties of light, you get even more interesting effects!) The shape of a light beam is specified by the source, the kind and shape of material it travels in, and the wave equation. In this discussion, I'll just be talking about classical beams of light. There certainly are some "shapes" that we cannot make out of light, but with enough effort and technology we have a great deal of control of how light behaves. Great question! A great deal of time is spent in optics research trying to modify light beams into useful or interesting shapes.
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