Photon containment

[Scott]

I was wondering if it would be possible to contain a photon for a long amount of time. Possible contain it in a mercury buble in a vaccum (im only 14 so im no physicist)? By the way, Im asking because i have an excellent idea that exploits the entanglement theory, but i need to read the polarity of the photon and be able to contain it for a long amount of time.

 

Thanks.

[Thales]

It depends what you mean by contain. If you have a perfectly reflective surface you can hypothetically contain the photon indefinately. You could 'select' the polarity of the photon before 'inserting' it into you system, but taking a measurement without effecting the photon's overall energy would be difficult. You could use a polarising reflecter however.

[ydoaPs]

what is the deal with all the 14 year olds?

[pulkit]

Once you put it in an optical fibre, thats also "containment". (You could go and put a loop in the fibre)

[Scott]

thanks guys. Never thought of the fibre. Im almost 15 .

[5614]

just to make sure. its not fibre, its fibre optics, thats like a wire with glass inside... not meaning to insult you, just to make sure, you said "fibre" its fibre optics.

[5614]

getting it in there would be a problem and you would have to complete the ring of fibre optic cable before the photon came around to the other side which would be very hard, and fibre optic cable is very expensive, you wouldnt wanna buy some massively long amount just so that you could shut it in time.

[pulkit]

getting it in there would be a problem and you would have to complete the ring of fibre optic cable before the photon came around to the other side which would be very hard, and fibre optic cable is very expensive, you wouldnt wanna buy some massively long amount just so that you could shut it in time.

 

 

You can try and directly put the photon into the loop, you needn't go about trying to close the loop, that'll be impractical.

[Scott]

i knew it was fibre optics, (like t3). Hmmm, I may need to wait for college to do this. By the way, would any of you know how to excite an atom to release the entangled photons. I guess applying heat might but Im not entirely sure.

[5614]

when a photon hits an electron, then the electron becomes excited and jumps to a higer state, after a certain amount of time the electrons then emits a photon and jumps back down to its original lower state, i dont know if this could be done with a entagled photon as the photon would interact and the entagle bond would be broken.

[Scott]

i thought i read somewhere that sometimes entangled photons are released from excited atoms. But i could be wrong.

[5614]

entaglement is a process of linking atoms.... it does not just happend when a photon is released from a previously excited atom.

 

there's a thread on quantum entaglement in quantum mechanics, although i was wrong at first, read the whole thing if you are dedicated and interested.... beleive swansont, he's always right, hes a Dr in atomic physics, he knows [everything!]

[Scott]

ok, i guess i better research more. I probably sound pretty ignorant .

[5614]

s'ok man, seriously, read that thread, at the beggining i thought i knew my stuff;

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4498&page=1

 

you really must read it all though, i was wrong at first, you could get confused... post a question there if you dont get it.

[Scott]

hmmm, i read all the way through admirals big post. Im kinda confused. So i guess the quantum systems of the photons are entangled and not the photons them selves (if i interpreted that correctly) . That pretty much all i got. I'll re-read it again later, once my brain recouporates.

 

Cheers.

 

Correct me if my interpretation was wrong.

[5614]

um, well done for reading it, whilsts i created that thread with the aim of understanding quantum teleportation [which i now do] i still had to learnt about quantum entaglement.

 

what i think you were trying to say was that the actual photons themselves were not entagled, the properties of the photons are entagled, which is right

 

read on to the other pages, dont worry about admirals long one! remember swansont is always right, i agrued with him oops, neva gonna do that again, and so did someone else, in this thread swansont is always right... and i think he will be in all you ever read!

[Scott]

Ok, cool.

 

BTW, this is a nice forum. Its very active.

[5614]

it is isnt it, unforutunately the chatroom isnt soo active, if you go into now, im there.... click the link on the top

[Scott]

Ok, i'll probably drop in every once and a while if i dont have any homework or anything.

 

EDIT:

 

This is a reply to post 20 (i didnt want to make another post to be deleted )

 

Ok, I guess those moderators are obligated to do their daily sweeps .

[5614]

ok, just to say when a moderator comes they will delete the last few posts are they are innapropriat to the topic in this thread, this is good decision and helps keeps SFN the good place it is.... dont be suprised if this isnt hear tomorrow.

 

[thats our chat, not the proper stuff!]

post 17, 18, 19 + 20

maybe 17 will stay, 18 - 20 will certainly go

[swansont]

entaglement is a process of linking atoms.... it does not just happend when a photon is released from a previously excited atom.

 

You'd have to have two photons emitted from a single transition. (probably a necessary but not sufficient condition for entanglement)

 

there's a thread on quantum entaglement in quantum mechanics, although i was wrong at first, read the whole thing if you are dedicated and interested.... beleive swansont, he's always right, hes a Dr in atomic physics, he knows [everything!]

 

Not everything, and not always.

[5614]

is it possible for a single electron to release two or more photons when switching from higher to lower engergy state?

[MolecularMan14]

what is the deal with all the 14 year olds?

Ah, but ya gotta respect our spunk. lol.

[5614]

there's not that many 14 year olds, although maybe relatively it seems many, probably also younger people are more often on the site, grown ups may not always give away their age and go onto threads labelled 'whats you age?'

 

and youdadonapogos and anti-mokey, im not 14!

[swansont]

is it possible for a single electron to release two or more photons when switching from higher to lower engergy state?

 

Yes. e.g. if the transition has a change of 2 units of angular momentum (like a D to S state transition), the transition cannot happen with a single photon. Such a transition would have a long lifetime, and the atom would preferentially decay via another channel, if a more direct one is available.