arXiv · 1512.01130
Free-fall of photons in a planar optical cavity
Abstract
We consider a planar optical cavity with its main axis oriented perpendicular to the earth's local gravity field. We examine the motion of a wavepacket of light trapped within the cavity spacer under the action of gravity. Within a relativistic framework, we find that the wavepacket initially at rest in terms of in-plane group velocity is accelerated by $g$ at early time in agreement the non-relativistic limit of free-fall. We show that this phenomenon is a manifestation of gravitational redshift, applied on photons at rest within the cavity.
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Maxime Richard. 2018-11-17. Free-fall of photons in a planar optical cavity. https://doi.org/10.1088/2399-6528%2Fab159a
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