摘要
Cherenkov radiation by swift charged particles in a dielectric medium has been used for a long time as an effective means for particle detection and measurements of their energy1-5.Now a team led by Prof.Yu Luo from Singapore considers a situation when the particle emits surface electromagnetic waves at the interface between an isotropic and a uniaxial-birefringent medium(Dyakonov surface waves6).The resulting Dyakonov-Cherenkov radiation is shown to be highly sensitive to both the value and the direction of the particle velocity7.In particular,it is shown that close to the Cherenkov threshold,the radiation intensity can be several orders of magnitude greater than that in traditional Qierenkov detectors.These new features allow to determine simultaneously the magnitude and direction of particle velocities on a compact platform(Fig.1).
