In the 1970s, Jones demonstrated a photon drag by showing that the translation of a window caused a slight displacement of a transmitted light beam. Similarly he showed that a spinning medium slightly rotated the polarization state. Rather than translating the medium, the speed of which is limited by mechanical considerations, we translate the image and measure its lateral delay with respect to a similar image that has not passed through the window. The equivalence, or lack of it, of the two frames is subtle and great care needs to be taken in determining whether or not similar results are to be obtained.

Date Published: 31 August 2007
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 6664, The Nature of Light: What Are Photons?, 66640D (31 August 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.735556

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6664:
The Nature of Light: What Are Photons?
Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri; Al F. Kracklauer; Katherine Creath, Editor(s)