Graphene enables capturing light as both wave pattern and particle

A team of researchers from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland claim to have captured the world’s first image of light simultaneously showing both wave pattern and particle energy attributes.

The scientists used extremely short pulses of laser light directed at a miniscule nanowire made of silver and suspended on graphene film that acted as an electrical isolator (or metal-graphene dielectric). The nanowire acted as a small antenna that generated radiation patterns with the received laser excitation. The light traveled along the wire in two opposite directions and when these waves bounced back to the middle, they intersected with each other to form a new wave that appeared to be standing in place. This standing wave, radiating around the nanowire, then became the source of light used in the experiment.