Abstract
The question of how much momentum light carries in media has been debated for over a century. Two rivalling theories, one from 1908 by Hermann Minkowski and the other from 1909 by Max Abraham, predict the exact opposite when light enters an optical material: a pulling force in Minkowski's case and a pushing force in Abraham's. Most experimental tests have agreed with Minkowski's theory, but here we report the first quantitative experimental evidence for Abraham's pushing pressure of light. Our results matter in optofluidics and optomechanics, and wherever light exerts mechanical pressure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 053035 |
| Journal | New Journal of Physics |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 22 May 2015 |
Funding
We thank Gregory Falkovich, Yaron Silberberg and Victor Steinberg for discussions, and Wei Hu for help on the experimental apparatus. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 90921009), a research grant from Mr and Mrs Louis Rosenmayer and from Mr and Mrs James Nathan, the Israel Science Foundation and the European Research Council.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Physics and Astronomy