Bending Light the "Wrong" Way

The effect can be seen just by poking a stick into the water; at the water surface, the light changes its direction, the stick appears to be bent. This tilt is described by the refractive index. For years, scientists have been trying to create special materials with a negative refractive index - their optical properties are quite different from those of normal materials. Researchers at the TU Vienna could now show that even common metals can have a negative refractive index, if they are placed in a magnetic field. Different Kind of Diffraction for Better Optics - When we drive a car into the snow at the edge of the road, the wheels on the road may turn faster than the wheels on the snow. This changes the direction of the car and it starts skidding. Something quite similar happens to beams of light that travel through the interface between two materials, in which light travels at different speeds - such as air and glass.