Stopping Light

[CramBoom]

As you may know, scientists stopped light for a full minute. They electromagnetically induced transparency on a crystal, shot a second laser, then turned off the first one, making the crystal opaque. Since it is opaque the light stopped bouncing around.

 

But how does this work? If light actually stopped, it would defy quantum theory because we would know the position of a particle and its velocity. Also, I thought massless particles couldn't stop, period. Can anyone give me some insight on this? Thanks.

[swansont]

Light isn't actually stopped. That's some hyperbole in the description and the reporting.

 

The light is absorbed in the material. It's gone — doesn't exist anymore. However (and this is the neat thing), the way the material was prepared and light was absorbed allows you to recreate the same information when new photons are emitted — the same phase and polarization.

 

There's some more discussion here: http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/35701-light-speed/

[CramBoom]

Ok, thanks!

[Delta1212]

Light isn't actually stopped. That's some hyperbole in the description and the reporting.

 

The light is absorbed in the material. It's gone doesn't exist anymore. However (and this is the neat thing), the way the material was prepared and light was absorbed allows you to recreate the same information when new photons are emitted the same phase and polarization.

 

There's some more discussion here: http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/35701-light-speed/

And, of course, a few hours after reading your post in that topic about mentioning Scotty in articles, I come across an article on Google news about quantum teleportation that referenced Star Trek in the first sentence.

 

It also went on to explain quantum entanglement by saying that a qubit can be both a 1 and a 0 at the same time, and since it's just one qubit, the 1 and 0 can't be separated so they're entangled.

 

Popular science is fun.

[NATO]

What??? 😳

What??? 😳