Harvard partnered with the Rowland Institute for Science where Hau led a team of scientists to accomplish slowing down the speed of light. The team pushed the envelope of what we knew to be possible by creating conditions that resembled the Bose-Einstein condensate. This is where atoms are cooled to the lowest temperature that is theoretically possible without hitting absolute zero.
In this experiment a super vacuum combined with a magnetic field that helps keep a cluster of sodium atoms in one area. These atoms are then cooled down to frigid temperatures nearing absolute zero and at this state they begin to act like one giant collective atom. Lasers are then directed at the mass of atoms and turned on sending a beam traveling the speed of light towards the condensate. The random motions of the atoms are controlled by the beam of the first laser shot through the width of the photons which align all the super atom one direction. The second beam is shot and pulsed through the length of the condensate and the photons start to mix with the aligned atoms. If the conditions are perfect then the near motionless super atom starts to absorb the particles of light and the photons which dramatically decrease and can even halt the speed of light!
From the initial experiment of slowing light down to 38 mph in 1998, Lene Vestergaard Hau and her co-authors Naomi Ginsberg and Sean Garner have continued to pursue other applications of combining light and the Bose-Einstein condensate. A Harvard press release dated in 2007 stated that “Physicists have for the first time stopped and extinguished a light pulse in one part of space and then revived it in a completely separate location. They accomplished this feat by completely converting the light pulse into matter that travels between the two locations and is subsequently changed back to light. “
Although this is an incredible feat it does not violate any laws of science, just utilizes the laws in place to break new records! Einstein was right in developing his theory of relativity on the speed of light constant but he did not limit how slow light can go. Manipulating the speed of light is a relatively new realm for modern scientists but it certainly shows some promise applications in the future. The most problematic issue is the low temperature required to create the Bose-Einstein Condensate. Although temperature is preventing some of the practical applications, an expert on this research Lene Vestergaard Hau remains hopeful for the future. She quotes, "This work could provide a missing link in the control of optical information," Hau says. "While the matter is traveling between the two Bose-Einstein condensates, we can trap it, potentially for minutes, and reshape it -- change it -- in whatever way we want. This novel form of quantum control could also have applications in the developing fields of quantum information processing and quantum cryptography."
In this experiment a super vacuum combined with a magnetic field that helps keep a cluster of sodium atoms in one area. These atoms are then cooled down to frigid temperatures nearing absolute zero and at this state they begin to act like one giant collective atom. Lasers are then directed at the mass of atoms and turned on sending a beam traveling the speed of light towards the condensate. The random motions of the atoms are controlled by the beam of the first laser shot through the width of the photons which align all the super atom one direction. The second beam is shot and pulsed through the length of the condensate and the photons start to mix with the aligned atoms. If the conditions are perfect then the near motionless super atom starts to absorb the particles of light and the photons which dramatically decrease and can even halt the speed of light!
From the initial experiment of slowing light down to 38 mph in 1998, Lene Vestergaard Hau and her co-authors Naomi Ginsberg and Sean Garner have continued to pursue other applications of combining light and the Bose-Einstein condensate. A Harvard press release dated in 2007 stated that “Physicists have for the first time stopped and extinguished a light pulse in one part of space and then revived it in a completely separate location. They accomplished this feat by completely converting the light pulse into matter that travels between the two locations and is subsequently changed back to light. “
Although this is an incredible feat it does not violate any laws of science, just utilizes the laws in place to break new records! Einstein was right in developing his theory of relativity on the speed of light constant but he did not limit how slow light can go. Manipulating the speed of light is a relatively new realm for modern scientists but it certainly shows some promise applications in the future. The most problematic issue is the low temperature required to create the Bose-Einstein Condensate. Although temperature is preventing some of the practical applications, an expert on this research Lene Vestergaard Hau remains hopeful for the future. She quotes, "This work could provide a missing link in the control of optical information," Hau says. "While the matter is traveling between the two Bose-Einstein condensates, we can trap it, potentially for minutes, and reshape it -- change it -- in whatever way we want. This novel form of quantum control could also have applications in the developing fields of quantum information processing and quantum cryptography."