Scientists Have Discovered a New Kind of Soliton Wave

The application of Kerry Vahala in California Institute of Technology scientists led by the discovery of a new soliton, soliton wave behind the wave will follow in other media, like take a ride of other waves and draw energy from other wave. A soliton is a localized wave like a particle: when they travel through space, they keep their shape and shape, not like the other waves. They were first proposed in 1834 by the Scotland Engineer Scott Russel John, who found that a sudden stop in the union canal between Faure Kirk and Edinburgh formed an unusual wave. Russell tracked the waveform for one to two miles, and pointed out that it retained its shape in the course of travel until it finally lost its trace.

He called his discovery "mobile wave", to the end of this century, this phenomenon is described in mathematics, and ultimately the concept of soliton wave. Under normal circumstances, when the wave is transmitted through space, the wave will dissipate. Throw a stone into a pond, and when they are scattered from the point of impact, the ripples will slowly disappear. And soliton wave. In addition to water waves, solitons can occur in the form of 30000mw laser pointer light waves. Vahala's team studied optical solitons through the micro scale loop circuit called optical micro cavity so that the optical soliton infinite recycling. The application of soliton can be used to create high precision optical clock, and can be used for microwave oscillator, for navigation and radar systems, and many other applications in the scene.

But despite decades of research, a soliton has never been observed in the form of such a dependency is almost parasitic behavior. "In essence, this new soliton is to take on another solitons, in the wake of another soliton. It also siphoned from other soliton energy, so it is self-sufficient. It will eventually grow larger than its parasitic master, "Vahala said he was information Science and technology and professor of applied physics Ted and ginger Jenkins and applied physical sciences and engineering executives of materials science and applied science.

Vahala will this new soliton like pilot fish, is a carnivorous fish shark will swim in the side, they can pick up the pieces from shark food. And in the shark's tail parade, pilot fish reduced their own bodies of water resistance, so they can use less strength to walk. Vahala is published in "Nature Physics" magazine that announced the new types and description of the soliton co-author, known as the "Stokes solitons" ("Stokes", because of technical reasons, namely the soliton energy siphon mechanism) and is a graduate of California Institute of Technology and Yang Qifan Xu for the first time to observe new soliton. Since the soliton can be close to the shape and position of the original soliton, Yang Heyi's initial reaction is to doubt the laboratory instrument failure.

"By observing the signals of two spectrometer, we confirmed that the signal is not an instrument error. Then, we know this is true, and must figure out why a new soliton can occur spontaneously such a situation," Yang said, . Vahala and his team used include laser 3000mw input provides energy solitons microcavities. This energy is not directly determined by the "pilot fish" absorb Stokes soliton Instead, energy is "Shark" soliton consumed. However, Vahala and his team found that the energy is taken away by the pilot fish solitons, which increase in size while the other soliton contraction. "Once we understand the environment needed to produce new solitons, it is actually possible to ensure that our design microcavities formed solitons, and even its nature as an effective wavelength, color, etc.," Yi said.