A team of scientists in Italy have managed to freeze light in place for an entire minute. The frozen light behaved like a supersolid, which is a state of matter when something is both a solid and a liquid. Before this supersolids were only observed when atomic or sub-atomic particles were cooled to near 0 degrees.
How They Did It
First, the team of scientists created a semiconductor platform with microscopic ridges. The team then shot a laser through the platform, which created polariton particles. Polariton particles are hybrid particles of both light and matter. When enough of the particles were packed together they formed a supersolid, which essentially caused light to freeze in place. While they were only able to freeze light for a minute, that is still a remarkable breakthrough for science.
Why It’s Important
This discovery is very important as it allows us to create better quantum computers. Quantum computers are computers that use quantum mechanics to solve problems faster than an ordinary computer. Better quantum computers would allow for faster and better AI Additionally, this breakthrough could allow us to create light-based structures in the future.
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https://www.science.org/content/article/placing-light-hold
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