Active absorption of electromagnetic pulses in a cavity

Abstract

We show that a pulse of electromagnetic radiation launched into a cavity can be completely absorbed into an infinitesimal region of space, provided one has a high degree of control over the current flowing through this region. We work out explicit examples of this effect in a cubic cavity and a cylindrical one, and experimentally demonstrate the effect in the microwave regime. OPEN ACCESS RECEIVED

Trapping of intense light in hollow shell

“…It differs from the EM caviton 23 or postsoliton 24 that is self-consistently generated through self organization and can have size of the order of or less than the laser wavelength. It also differs from the hohlraum for inertial confinement fusion, 31,32 where the cavity is much larger than the laser pulses and the resulting x-ray radiation is fully incoherent. Aside from the general interest to light confinement, 33,34 the present results may also be useful for interpreting phenomena such as localized light flashes, 35,36 designing new optical materials and structures, 37 optical information control, 38 light interaction with hollow nanostructures, 39 etc.…”