title: Observation of a push force on the end face of a nanometer silica filament exerted by outgoing light.
abstract: There are two different proposals for the momentum of light in a transparent dielectric of refractive index n: Minkowski's version nE/c and Abraham's version E/(nc), where E and c are the energy and vacuum speed of light, respectively. Despite many tests and debates over nearly a century, momentum of light in a transparent dielectric remains controversial. In this Letter, we report a direct observation of the inward push force on the free end face of a nanometer silica filament exerted by the outgoing light. Our results suggest that Abraham's momentum is correct.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China. shewl@mail.sysu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Weilong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: She
authors.forename: Jianhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Raohui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Feng