Laser power makes a mirror

摘要

Physicists have created a mirror by using a laser to herd tiny particles into a continuous reflective surface. Optical forces from laser beams have already been used to manipulate single particles. Now, Tomasz Grzegorczyk at BAE Systems in Burlington, Massachusetts, and his colleagues have used a green laser to organize about 150 polystyrene spheres suspended in water. The three-micrometre-wide beads interacted with each other to form a crystal-like membrane configuration (pictured), and a camera was used to capture an image reflected off the membrane surface.