Can We Make Solid Light?
By Anne Pawsey
Fortunately for humanity, most of the time light isn’t hard; you can't knock someone out with a torch beam or feel particles of light on your skin. However, researchers in Melbourne have created a way to make light solid.The reason some things are solid is due to the forces between particles. Electrons repel each other; it's this repulsion that stops you falling through the floor: electrons in the floor are repelled by the electrons in your feet. Light doesn't do the some thing, it is made up of particles called photons which don't really notice each other and so don't repel. This means light is not normally solid.
The researchers, Dr Andrew Greentree, Jared Cole and Prof. Lloyd Hollenberg of the University of Melbourne along with Dr Charles Tahan of the University of Cambridge, managed to design conditions where photons repel each other becoming “solid”. The solid photons are stuck in a crystal and at low temperatures they undergo a phase transition between states, this transition is the equivalent of the change between water and ice.
The process is still only at the theoretical stage, but this odd behaviour of the photons potentially allows scientists to look at strange quantum effects which previously were impossible to observe, this could lead to a new more powerful type of computer. These computers would allow physicists to study even stranger phenomena; ones that currently need super computers to model, such as quantum mechanics, string theory and fashion trends.
Find some more from Anne or enjoy the lighter side of science below:
- Straight - Lighting up the party
- News - Sound goes faster than light
- Spoof - Light sabre gene found
- News - The light fingers of Middle England
Image: Gavin Mills
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