Scientists have managed to stop the fastest thing in the universe for one record-breaking minute - light.
To halt light, which travels at roughly 299,791km/h, researchers from the University of Darmstadt in Germany fired a series of lasers into a crystal.They then halted one of the beams, creating a magnetic field and trapping the light inside the crystal for an entire minute.
Thomas Krauss, Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the university, said "one minute is extremely, extremely long"."This is indeed a major milestone." To put the breakthrough in context, physicists managed to slow light to 17m-per-second in 1999 before halting it for a fraction of a second in 2001. Earlier this year, scientists managed to hold light still for 16 seconds.
It is thought that the feat will eventually lead to secure quantum communications working over long distances.
The scientists' findings were published in the Physical Review Letters journal on July 15.
Source:
To halt light, which travels at roughly 299,791km/h, researchers from the University of Darmstadt in Germany fired a series of lasers into a crystal.They then halted one of the beams, creating a magnetic field and trapping the light inside the crystal for an entire minute.
Thomas Krauss, Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the university, said "one minute is extremely, extremely long"."This is indeed a major milestone." To put the breakthrough in context, physicists managed to slow light to 17m-per-second in 1999 before halting it for a fraction of a second in 2001. Earlier this year, scientists managed to hold light still for 16 seconds.
It is thought that the feat will eventually lead to secure quantum communications working over long distances.
The scientists' findings were published in the Physical Review Letters journal on July 15.
Source:
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