Comment on "Observation of a push force on the end face of a nanometer silica filament exerted by outgoing light," Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 243601 (2008)

Abstract

In a recent paper, W. She, J. Yu and R. Feng reported the slight deformations observed upon transmission of a light pulse through a fairly short length of a silica glass nano-fiber. Relating the shape and magnitude of these deformations to the momentum of the light pulse both inside and outside the fiber, these authors concluded that, within the fiber, the photons carry the Abraham momentum. In my view, the authors' claim that they have resolved the Abraham-Minkowski controversy surrounding the momentum of photons inside dielectric media is premature. A correct interpretation of the experiments of She et al requires precise calculations that would properly account not only for the electromagnetic momentum (both inside and outside the fiber) but also for the Lorentz force exerted on the fiber by the light pulse in its entire path through this nano-waveguide.

2 pages, 4 references

References in corpus (1)

• Observation of a push force on the end face of a nm fiber taper exerted by outgoing light

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Resolution of the Abraham-Minkowski Controversy
• Minkowski Momentum Resulting from a Vacuum-Medium Mapping Procedure, and a Brief Review of Minkowski Momentum Experiments
• Time-dependent theory of optical electro- and magnetostriction
• Quantitative in situ measurement of optical force along a strand of cleaved silica optical fiber induced by the light guided therewithin
• A heuristic resolution of the Abraham-Minkowski controversy