According to a team of physicists at Imperial College London (ICL), UK, it is possible to create a new form of light by binding light to a single electron, combining the properties of both.

In normal materials, light interacts with a whole host of electrons present on the surface and within the material.

But by using theoretical physics to model the behavior of light and an emerging class of materials known as topological insulators, Dr. Vincenzo Giannini of ICL’s Department of Physics and co-authors have found that it could interact with just one electron on the surface.

This would create a coupling that merges some of the properties of the light and the electron.

Normally, light travels in a straight line, but when bound to the electron it would instead follow its path, tracing the surface of the material.

Dr. Giannini and his colleagues modeled this interaction around a nanoparticle – a small sphere below 0.00000001 m in diameter – made of a topological insulator.

Their models showed that as well as the light taking the property of the electron and circulating the particle, the electron would also take on some of the properties of the light.

Normally, as electrons are traveling along materials, such as electrical circuits, they will stop when faced with a defect.

However, the scientists discovered that even if there were imperfections in the surface of the nanoparticle, the electron would still be able to travel onwards with the aid of the light.

If this could be adapted into photonic circuits, they would be more robust and less vulnerable to disruption and physical imperfections.

“The results of this research will have a huge impact on the way we conceive light,” Dr. Giannini said.

“Topological insulators were only discovered in the last decade, but are already providing us with new phenomena to study and new ways to explore important concepts in physics.”

“It should be possible to observe the phenomena we have modeled in experiments using current technology, and our team is working with experimental physicists to make this a reality.”

“The process that leads to the creation of this new form of light could be scaled up so that the phenomena could observed much more easily,” he said.

“Currently, quantum phenomena can only be seen when looking at very small objects or objects that have been super-cooled, but this could allow scientists to study these kinds of behavior at room temperature.”

The team’s results were published in the August 5 issue of the journal Nature Communications.

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G. Siroki et al. 2016. Single-electron induced surface plasmons on a topological nanoparticle. Nature Communications 7, article number: 12375; doi: 10.1038/ncomms12375