By Coupling Photons To Atoms In Glass Fiber, Time Is Stopped
Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - 10:40
in Physics & Chemistry
Light is a useful tool for quantum communication, but it has one major disadvantage - it travels at the speed of light and sometimes things need to be kept in place, or at least slowed down. Like with trains all sharing a track, you can't have one express line with no brakes for very long. A team researchers has demonstrated they can put the brakes on light, and not in some arcane quantum system but rather in glass fiber networks we are already using today. By coupling atoms to glass fibers light was slowed down to train speed - 90 miles per hour - and they even managed to bring the light to a complete stop and to retrieve it again later. read more