Light stopped for over a second

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Light has been stopped in its tracks for more than one second, setting a new record over a thousand times longer than the previous one.

Researchers at the Australian National University used a technique called electromagnetically induced transparency in which a beam of laser light puts the atoms in a solid sample into a state in which a signal light pulse can be trapped.

Most previous stopped-light demonstrations have used gases rather than solid materials. Light had previously been stopped in a solid (yttrium-silicate doped with atoms of praseodymium), but only for a few milliseconds.

Although the efficiency of the storage was low in this experiment, the researchers believe they can improve the efficiency by using a thicker sample and by increasing the concentration of praseodymium in the sample. The technique could be useful in quantum information processing applications such as quantum computers.

Sources

J. J. Longdell, E. Fraval, M. J. Sellars, and N. B. Manson. "[1]" — Physical Review Letters, August 2, 2005

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