“It's not an in-apt analogy to compare this to Lightsabers. When these Photons
interact with each other, they're pushing against and deflect each other. The
physics of what's happening in these molecules is similar to what we see in the
movies.”
Harvard Professor of Physics
Mikhail Lukin in a Press Release on Thursday September 26th, 2013
Science took yet another step towards the Development of a Quantum Computer
or at least the Optical Computer using Light as a Data transfer medium. This as
researchers from Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) working
with doctoral student Alexey Gorshkov and MIT graduate students Thibault
Peyronel and Qiu Liang at the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atom under the
guidance of Harvard Professor of Physics Mikhail Lukin and MIT Professor of
Physics Vladan Vuletic has managed to create a new form of matter.
They’ve taken massless Photons, the very same particles that make up Light
and made their pair-bond covalently in a new form of matter as reported in “Science
trumps the Force to create a real-life Lightsaber”, published September 26,
2013 1:52 PM PDT by Eric Mack, CNET News and
“Scientists
create never-before-seen form of matter”, published Sep 25, 2013, PhysOrg.
They achieved this by basically freezing Light in its place. Using
Supercooled to near absolute zero in a vacuum chamber and a gaseous bundle of
Rubidium (Rb) Atoms, they managed to make Photons emitted by weak and extremely
low-powered Laser beams bind together covalently and form molecular pairs.
In essence, the scientists created a new form of matter never before seen
using a principle known as the Rydberg Blockade based on the publication of their results in the Nature Physics
Journal “Observation
of collective excitation of two individual Atoms in the Rydberg blockade regime”,
published 11 January 2009, Nature Journal.
Rydberg
Blockade – Lightsaber and Crystalline Photons
Harvard Professor
of Physics Mikhail Lukin, who explains it quite simply, quote: “Most of the
properties of light we know about originate from the fact that Photons are
massless, and that they do not interact with each other. What we have done is
create a special type of medium in which Photons interact with each other so
strongly that they begin to act as though they have mass, and they bind
together to form molecules. This type of Photonic bound state has been discussed
theoretically for quite a while, but until now it hadn't been observed”.
The principle
behind the Rydberg Blockade is that 2
Atoms can be excited by the same Energy level by the same source. As the
Rubidium (Rb) Atoms are in an ultra cool gaseous state, they at their lowest
Ground State in terms of Energy. The Team fired single low Energy Photons into
the Rubidium (Rb) Cloud and as the individual Photons passed beside the ultra-cool
Rubidium (RB) Atoms, they lost Energy in accordance with the Rydberg Blockade.
This resulted in
each Photon imparting its Energy to each Rubidium (Rb) it meets, but not to the
same Energy Level as the previous Photon before it. As such, for the second Photon
coming behind it to excite the previous Atoms that the first Photon excited,
the first Photon must move on further into the Cloud and excite other Rubidium
(Rb) Atoms, so that it too can excite the Atoms to the same Energy Level.
The Result?
The Atoms travel
in pairs like trains, the first Photon pulling the other along and the Second
Photon behind it pushing it along as it imparts Energy to the nearby Rubidium
(Rb) Atoms in the super-cooled Rubidium (Rb) Cloud. Eventually, they pair up
and beginning moving together following behind each other as they lose Energy
to the nearby Rubidium (Rb) Atoms.
At this point they
become lower in Energy and begin to merge, bonding as would covalent Atoms
sharing an electron and behaving as if they’ve acquired a Higgs Boson i.e.
Having Mass as explained in my blog article
entitled “Higgs
Boson Discovery is the Biggest discovery of 2012 - Lay the Favourite for
Anti-Gravity, Light Speed Travel and Quantum Teleportation Deadfall”.
But instead of
sharing Electrons, they’re sharing Energy, which acts as a glue to bind the Photons
together. This fits with Professor of Physics Mikhail Lukin explanation of what’s
happening, quote: “It's a Photonic interaction that's mediated by the Atomic interaction.
That makes these two Photons behave like a molecule, and when they exit the
medium they're much more likely to do so together than as single Photons”.
The implication of this discovery of a new form of matter isn’t
surprising. It’s already known that you have stars made up purely of Neutrons
called Neutron Stars, the result left behind after the collapse of a very
massive during a Supernova event as explained in “Neutron
Stars”, visited September 30th 2013 by Lindsworth Deer, NASA.
Electrons are also known to do the same thing as well, clumping together
in a ball of Electrons and charged ozone plasma known as Ball Lightning. Ball Lightning has
been known about since before and after Victorian times in the 1600’s and it’s
not uncommon to see etchings from that time period showing this mysterious
phenomenon.
It’s often been written about and observed during very violent
thunderstorms and is thought to be in some cases related to St. Elmo’s Fire as
can be seen in the video below!
But this kind of clumping together of otherwise massless Photons has
never been observed before. This is not to say that Photons haven’t been
captured and made to stop travelling at the speed of Light, a feat that’s
already been done and has implications for Data Storage, particularly Optical Data Switches
and more efficient optical to electrical conversion in Fiber Optic Switches in
Telecom Networks that don’t require conversion from Light to Electrical to
manipulate Data.
Essentially this Rydberg Blockade can be used in an Optical Computer,
especially for optical to electrical conversions. A practical version of an
Optical Computer is no doubt being developed as described in my blog article
entitled “USB
3.0 Standards Promotion Group announced 10Gbps capable USB 3.1 Standard - How
PC and Laptop Sales can be revived by going Turbo”, with this recent
discovery making the storage of information from Photons lead more to the
development of a Quantum Computer.
Storage of Light – From Light Crystals to Light Sabers
and Optical Computer Storage
This, literally, however, is a whole different ball of wax! This is
really not only a new form of matter, but also has practical applications. If Photons
can be made to form molecular pairs, that means it can be made to assume one of
the three (3) Standard states of Matter, that being solid, Liquid or Gas.
If so, it has huge implications for Data Storage, allowing Light to be
captured and stored even in Crystalline form, as that’s a Solid state that’s
possible for any solid under the right conditions. Since Photons are massless,
these Crystals
would float, assuming “massless” really means negligible mass.
This makes their covalently bonded molecules in a Crystalline lattice
mostly filled with air in-between, like Aerogel. In fact, it would
look a lot like Aerogel, only giving off luminescent radiation even in darkness
and not reflecting or refracting Light it like traditional Crystals.
They’d also lose mass by giving off radiation and more interestingly, it’ll
be easy to move them about when floating in the air by simply shining Light on
them, as they’d be susceptible to Light pressure i.e. the collision of Photons
from a Laser beam could move them around while floating in the air!
They’d also be a great storage medium for Video, which is mostly composed
of Light. This is similar to the idea of using Crystals
to store data as described in my blog article
entitled “University
of Southampton and Eindhoven's University write and read Data to Quartz Crystal
- Eternal Storage borrowed from Superman Man of Steel”. Due to their
delicate nature and the fact they’re made out of Light, assuming a crystalline
form would be a very termporaty physical state of matter, as they’re too
delicate and fragile to hold the structure for long.
But it’s their other properties that they’ve have once they acquire a
charge. Assuming they have a net positive charge as they now have mass due to
their attraction for the energy that binds them together, they’d bind and
attract Electrons that would form an orbit. Due to their “massless” or
negligible mass, these orbiting Electrons would be lightly bound, making it
possible for the Electrons to move around within their Crystalline Lattice.
In essence, Light Crystals would have properties similar to a Superconducting
Metal i.e. current flow even after applied e.m.f. removed with an E.M.F
(Electro Magnetic Force) that could be easily induced by applying a fluctuation
magnetic field or a voltage potential. This would result in a Light Crystal
becoming energetic and able to produce arcs of Electrons, spitting and
crackling like a Tesla Coil but with the Electrons bound to their Light Crystal
Lattice in much the same way Electrons flow on the surface of a metal.
This would basically be a Light Saber as seen in Star Wars declares The
UK Guardian in excitement in the article “Star
Wars lightsabers finally invented”, published Monday 30 September 2013
09.59 BST by Ben Child, The UK Guardian.
The only difference being is that the Light Saber made by this Rydberg
Blockade method and any resulting Light Crystals as described above would be
very delicate and require a magnetic shielding to reinforce the Crystalline
lattice and prevent it from falling apart in a burst of very bright Light.
Remember the Light Crystal is made of covalently bonded Photons. Breaking
the lattice would reduce the Photons back to their molecular pairs and then
they’d easily react with free Photons in a sudden rapid burst of blinding
radiation, causing instant blindness to whomever witnessed it.
So this danger combine with the requirement of absolute zero to make the Photons
form covalently bonded molecules and eventually Light Crystals in the first
place makes for a fascinating discovery with even more fascinating work to be
done to make this practical!
May the Force be with the Researchers at Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology?).
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