Scientists Create New Form Of Matter

http://phys.org/news/2013-09-scientists-never-before-seen.html

by chunky1994 • 13 years ago

23 4 13 years ago

So is the photon molecule, after it exits the medium, still traveling as a massless particle would; at the speed of light?

I'm trying to picture complex 3d structures made only of light, as mentioned in the article, and thinking they are going to be moving at light speed... Do I have that right?

cLeEOGPw• 13 years ago

Well as I understood it isn't the photons that interacts with the other photons, it's the way the cold molecules interact as the light passes through it that changes the light course in a way that, if we would look only at how photon is traveling in the atoms, looks like it is interacting with the other photon. I may have misunderstood it, but if it works that way then any structures would disappear almost instantaneously.

GotAnyMegadeth• 13 years ago

Gizmodo had this with the title of "Scientists discover a way to make real life lightsabers" lol

http://gizmodo.com/scientists-created-a-new-form-of-matter-a...

a1a• 13 years ago

"It's not an in-apt analogy to compare this to light sabers," Lukin added.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130925132323.ht...

It's however rather sad scientist has to make such statements to get attention. As this research actually has really awesome applications: "Particular applications of this technique include all-optical switching, deterministic photonic quantum logic and the generation of strongly correlated states of light9."

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...

Scientists Create New Form Of Matter

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