• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.243601
• Corpus ID: 9630919

Observation of a push force on the end face of a nanometer silica filament exerted by outgoing light.

@article{She2008ObservationOA,
  title={Observation of a push force on the end face of a nanometer silica filament exerted by outgoing light.},
  author={Wei-long She and Jianhui Yu and Raohui Feng},
  journal={Physical review letters},
  year={2008},
  volume={101 24},
  pages={
          243601
        }
}

• W. She, Jianhui Yu, Raohui Feng
• Published 15 June 2008
• Physics
• Physical review letters

There are two different proposals for the momentum of light in a transparent dielectric of refractive index n: Minkowski's version nE/c and Abraham's version E/(nc), where E and c are the energy and vacuum speed of light, respectively. Despite many tests and debates over nearly a century, momentum of light in a transparent dielectric remains controversial. In this Letter, we report a direct observation of the inward push force on the free end face of a nanometer silica filament exerted by the outgoing light. Our results suggest that Abraham's momentum is correct.