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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Discovered a Hidden Force in Ordinary Light and It Can Spin Tiny Machines

For decades, scientists believed that only specially structured light could transfer angular momentum and make microscopic objects rotate. A new study by researchers led by Hernandez challenges that assumption and reveals something remarkable: even ordinary light, such as linearly polarized or unpolarized light, can spin and move tiny chiral particles. This discovery opens exciting possibilities for simpler, cheaper, and more practical optical technologies.

Understanding Light's Hidden Forces

Light is much more than something that allows us to see. Every photon carries energy and momentum. When light interacts with matter, it can transfer some of this momentum, producing physical forces and motion.

Scientists have long used this property in technologies known as optical tweezers. These systems use focused laser beams to trap and manipulate microscopic particles. Optical tweezers have become essential tools in physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine.

Light carries two main types of momentum:

Linear momentum pushes objects in a particular direction. This effect is responsible for trapping and moving microscopic particles.

Angular momentum causes rotation. Angular momentum itself appears in two forms:

  • Spin Angular Momentum (SAM): Associated with the polarization of light and responsible for making particles spin around their own axis.

  • Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM): Associated with the shape and phase structure of the light beam and capable of making particles orbit around a central axis.

Traditionally, scientists believed that if a light beam carried no spin angular momentum, it could not cause rotational motion in symmetric particles.

The new research shows that this assumption is not always true.

Why Linearly Polarized and Unpolarized Light Were Considered Special

Linearly polarized (LP) light and unpolarized (UP) light are often described as "achiral" forms of light. They can be viewed as equal mixtures of left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized components.

Because these opposite components cancel each other's angular momentum, LP and UP light are generally considered to have zero net spin angular momentum.

A useful analogy is a racemic chemical mixture containing equal amounts of left-handed and right-handed molecules. Since both forms are present in equal proportions, there is no overall handedness.

For this reason, scientists expected LP and UP light to be unable to transfer net spin angular momentum to microscopic particles.

The Hernandez team discovered that chiral materials can change this situation dramatically.

The Role of Chiral Microparticles

The key to the discovery lies in special microscopic particles made from cholesteric liquid crystals.

These particles possess a helical internal structure, giving them a specific handedness, much like a left-handed or right-handed screw.

Because of this chirality, they interact differently with different circular polarization states of light.

The particles act as tiny chiral mirrors. Unlike ordinary mirrors, which reverse the handedness of reflected circularly polarized light, these chiral mirrors selectively reflect only one circular polarization while allowing the opposite polarization to pass through.

As a result, when ordinary LP or UP light strikes these particles, only one of the hidden circularly polarized components interacts strongly with the material.

This effectively separates the two components of the light, a process known as chiral resolution.

Resolving the Hidden Components of Light

The researchers demonstrated that the chiral particles selectively interact with only the left-handed component of the incoming light.

Although LP and UP light contain equal amounts of left-handed and right-handed circular polarization, the particle reflects only the component that matches its own handedness.

This selective reflection creates an imbalance.

The particle receives angular momentum from the reflected component and begins to rotate.

In effect, the chiral particle performs a kind of optical sorting process, separating the hidden chiral components of ordinary light and extracting angular momentum from them.

This is the first experimental evidence showing that linearly polarized and unpolarized light can undergo chiral resolution through interaction with microscopic chiral matter.

Trapping, Spinning, and Orbiting with Ordinary Light

One of the most exciting findings is that the researchers were able to perform several optical manipulation tasks simultaneously.

Using a simple Gaussian laser beam, they achieved:

  • Stable trapping of microscopic particles

  • Spinning motion around the particle's own axis

  • Orbital motion around the beam axis

Normally, these effects require carefully engineered laser beams with specific polarization states or complex phase structures.

In this experiment, however, the researchers achieved these motions using light that had no net helicity and no orbital angular momentum.

The secret lies in the interaction between the particle's chirality and the combined transfer of linear and angular momentum from the light.

By adjusting the wavelength of the laser, the team controlled how strongly the particles reflected light and therefore controlled the mechanical behavior of the particles.

A Surprising Type of Orbital Motion

One particularly intriguing result was the observation of orbital motion.

Gaussian beams do not normally carry orbital angular momentum. Therefore, the observed orbiting could not be explained by conventional theories involving OAM transfer.

The researchers propose that the orbiting arises because particles become trapped slightly away from the beam center.

In this off-axis position, the particle receives asymmetric illumination from the beam. This asymmetry creates additional forces and torques that combine with the particle's spinning motion, producing an orbital trajectory.

Although the exact mechanism requires further theoretical investigation, the experiments clearly demonstrate that orbital motion can emerge without specially structured light beams.

Why This Discovery Matters

Modern optical manipulation techniques often rely on increasingly complex light patterns created using expensive optical components.

This complexity increases system cost, size, and power consumption.

The new findings suggest a completely different strategy.

Instead of engineering complicated light beams, scientists can engineer the material itself.

By designing particles with specific chiral properties, ordinary light sources may perform tasks previously achievable only with sophisticated lasers.

This shift could simplify many optical systems and make advanced optomechanical technologies more accessible.

Future Applications

The implications extend across multiple scientific and technological fields.

Potential applications include:

  • Microscopic motors powered by ordinary light

  • Lab-on-a-chip devices

  • Optical micromachines

  • Targeted drug delivery systems

  • Miniature pumps for microfluidics

  • Energy conversion technologies

  • Advanced sensing platforms

Perhaps most importantly, the researchers suggest that even broadband light sources, LEDs, or white light could eventually be used for these tasks.

As long as part of the spectrum provides trapping forces and another part selectively transfers angular momentum, mechanical control becomes possible without specialized laser systems.

A New Direction for Optomechanics

The Hernandez team's work represents a significant shift in how scientists think about optical manipulation.

For years, researchers focused on shaping light itself to achieve greater control. This study demonstrates that engineering the material can be just as powerful.

By exploiting chirality, ordinary linearly polarized and unpolarized light can be transformed into a source of rotational motion at microscopic scales.

The discovery reveals that hidden within seemingly ordinary light are components that can be selectively extracted and converted into mechanical action.

As advances in nanotechnology and chiral materials continue, this principle could lead to a new generation of simple, compact, and cost-effective optomechanical devices powered by nothing more than carefully selected wavelengths of ordinary light.

Reference: Hernández, R., Mazzulla, A., Provenzano, C. et al. Chiral resolution of spin angular momentum in linearly polarized and unpolarized light. Sci Rep 5, 16926 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep16926

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