Physicists have engineered the world’s thinnest mirror with a layer of hundreds of atoms that is much thinner than human hair but has high light reflection.
Physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) have achieved this, and the paper was published in the journal Nature. To make this mirror, new materials and only one layer with several hundred identical atoms have been used. These atoms were organized by the intervention of laser beams into a two-dimensional array of an optical network, the first of its kind.
Mirrors typically use polished metal surfaces or optical glass with a special coating, and now physicists at MPQ have been able to offer a new way to make mirrors with the help of a few hundred atoms. The world’s thinnest mirror is several nanometers thick, which is 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, yet it reflects a lot of light.
“Metamaterial” was used to make this mirror. Metamaterials are artificial structures with very special properties that can rarely be seen in nature. These properties do not arise from their composition, but from the structures formed by them.
Their properties along with two vital features make the new mirror work in this style. The first feature is the wavelength distance of the atoms, which together with the regular pattern, prevent the light scattering and suppress it, which results in the reflection of the rays in a one-way and very stable path. The second feature is the distance between the atoms, which allows the input photon to move several times between the atoms before being reflected in a light stream, resulting in a strong reflection that can be observed with the naked eye.
Although the reflection of light can be seen, but due to the diameter of this mirror is close to 7 microns, it is not possible to see it with the naked eye, however, the device that hosts it is very large and weighs up to 2 tons.
