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- Title
Observing angular deviations in the specular reflection of a light beam.
- Authors
Merano, M.; Aiello, A.; van Exter, M. P.; Woerdman, J. P.
- Abstract
The Law of Reflection of a light ray incident upon a mirror (θin = θout) was first formulated by Euclid around 300 bc in his book Catoptrics; it has been a tenet of geometrical optics ever since. However, more recently, a small angular deviation of the Law of Reflection has been predicted for a physical light beam when this is regarded as the implementation of a ray. The deviation is a diffractive consequence of the angular dependence of the reflectivity and should occur for any mirror with less than 100% reflectivity. We report here experimental proof of this angular deviation by determining the direction of an optical beam after reflection from an air–glass interface, using a position detector with nanometre resolution. Our results are relevant for angular metrology in general and cantilever-based surface microscopies in particular. Analogous angular deviations are expected for reflection of acoustic waves and quantum matter waves.
- Subjects
SPECULAR reflectance; OPTICAL reflection; EUCLID; OPTICAL diffraction; OPTICAL resolution; METROLOGY
- Publication
Nature Photonics, 2009, Vol 3, Issue 6, p337
- ISSN
1749-4885
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nphoton.2009.75