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Electromagnetic waves carry energy as well as linear and angular momenta. When a light pulse is reflected from, transmitted through, or absorbed by a material medium, energy and momentum (both linear and angular) are generally exchanged,…
Invoking Maxwell's classical electrodynamics in conjunction with expressions for the electromagnetic (EM) energy, momentum, force, and torque, we use a few simple examples to demonstrate the nature of linear and angular momentum exchange…
Angular momentum and torque are important principles for basic and applied physics on any spatial scales, for example, in elementary particles, cold gases, optical tweezers, quantum information technology, metamaterials, gyroscopes or…
Light is extensively used to steer the motion of atoms in free space, enabling cooling and trapping of matter waves through ponderomotive forces and Doppler-mediated photon scattering. Likewise, light interaction with free electrons has…
Reflection, refraction, and absorption of light by material media are, in general, accompanied by a transfer of optical energy and momentum to the media. Consequently, the eigen-modes of mechanical vibration (phonons) created in the process…
We develop a general methodology for numerical computations of electromagnetic (EM) fields and forces in matter, based on solving the macroscopic Maxwell's equations in real space and adopting the Maxwell Stress Tensor formalism. Our…
Light carries energy and momentum. It can therefore alter the motion of objects from atomic to astronomical scales. Being widely available, readily controllable and broadly biocompatible, light is also an ideal tool to propel microscopic…
For an electrostatic wave interacting with a single species in a collisionless plasma, momentum conservation implies current conservation. However, when multiple species interact with the wave, they can exchange momentum, leading to current…
We consider the motion of a nonrelativistic electron in the field of two strong monochromatic light waves propagating counter to each other. The matrix elements of emission and absorption are found. An expression is obtained for the gain of…
Suggestion of physics laboratory exercises and discussion of the physics laboratory curricula for engineering majors where the properties of light and electromagnetic waves are studied in parallel. It is shown that one of the important…
Scattering of electromagnetic waves by many small particles of arbitrary shapes is reduced rigorously to solving linear algebraic system of equations bypassing the usual usage of integral equations. The matrix elements of this linear…
Solar flares are driven by the release of magnetic energy from reconnection events in the solar corona, whereafter energy is transported to the chromosphere, heating the plasma and causing the characteristic radiative losses. In the…
Invoking Maxwell's classical equations in conjunction with expressions for the electromagnetic (EM) energy, momentum, force, and torque, we use a few simple examples to demonstrate the nature of the EM angular momentum. The energy and the…
In this paper, we study the interactions of electromagnetic waves with a non-dispersive dynamic medium that is temporally dependent. Electromagnetic fields under material time-modulation conserve their momentum but not their energy. We…
We study the interaction of a light beams carrying angular momentum with a single, trapped and well localized ion. We provide a detailed calculation of selection rules and excitation probabilities for quadrupole transitions. The results…
Optical tweezers and optical lattices are making it possible to control small particles by means of electromagnetic forces and torques. In this context, a method is presented in this work to calculate electromagnetic forces and torques for…
The partial reflection of an electromagnetic (EM) wave from a medium leads to absorption of momentum in the direction perpendicular to the surface (the standard radiation pressure) {and, for oblique incidence on a partially reflecting…
It is well-known that electric spin angular momentum and electric orbital angular momentum are conserved under paraxial propagation of travelling waves in free-space. Here we study the electric and magnetic angular momentum in…
The energy and momentum densities of the fields of a free electron in a plane electromagnetic wave include interference terms that are the classical version of the ``dressing'' of the electron the arises in a quantum analysis. The…
A conducting disk significantly changes the generation of the electromagnetic radiation excited by the rotation of the magnetic field frozen to a star. Due to the reflection of waves from a disk there appear waves propagating toward a star,…