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(萌妹社区Org.com) -- Australian National University scientists have successfully bent light beams around an object on a two dimensional metal surface, opening the door to faster and cheaper computer chips working with light.

The international team, including three members from the Research School of 萌妹社区ics and Engineering at ANU, have successfully demonstrated that a tiny beam of light on a flat surface can be bent around an obstacle, and course-correct itself on the other side of that obstacle. It鈥檚 the world鈥檚 first two-dimensional demonstration of so-called 鈥楢iry beams鈥�. Their paper on the subject will be published in this month鈥檚 萌妹社区ical Review Letters.

鈥淪tudents in science class learn that light rays travel along straight trajectories and that it can鈥檛 go around corners,鈥� said ANU team member Professor Yuri Kivshar.

鈥淩ecently it was discovered that small beams of light can be bent in a laboratory setting, diffracting much less than a regular beam. These rays of light are called 鈥楢iry Beams,鈥� and named after the English astronomer Sir George Biddell Airy, who studied light in rainbows.

鈥淥ur team has demonstrated that these beams can also be bound on the flat surface of a chip. We also observed a fascinating property of these beams 鈥� the so-called self-healing phenomenon, where the wave recovers after passing through surface defects,鈥� he said.

Fellow ANU team member Dr. Dragomir Neshev says that this demonstration offers potential in a number of areas.

鈥淭his discovery offers some exciting possible applications, particularly in the area of communications technology where it could allow us a cheap way to manipulate light on a chip,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t also offers potential in the manipulation of biological molecules in a much cheaper way than it is currently done.鈥�

The demonstration that light can be made to bend on a flat surface has been the subject of fierce academic competition by research groups around the world, including groups from the USA, China, and Korea.