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Experimental Verification of a Bigrating Beam Rider
By Ying-Ju Lucy Chu, Nelson V. Tabiryan, and Grover A. Swartzlander, Jr.
Published in Physical Review Letters 123, 244302 (Friday, December 13, 2019)

Abstract

An optical beam rider making use of a light sail comprising two opposing diffraction gratings is experimentally demonstrated for the first time. We verify that the illuminated space-variant grating structure provides an optical restoring force, exhibiting stable oscillations when the bigrating is displaced from equilibrium. We further demonstrate parametric cooling by illuminating the sail with synchronized light pulses. This experiment enhances the technical feasibility of a laser-driven light sail based on diffractive radiation pressure.