Light hits near infinite speed in silver-coated glass

A nano-sized bar of glass encased in silver allows visible light to pass through at near infinite speed. The technique may spur advances in optical computing.

Metamaterials are synthetic materials with properties not found in nature. Metal and glass have been combined in previous metamaterials to bend light backwards or to make invisibility cloaks. These materials achieve their bizarre effects by manipulating the refractive index, a measure of how much a substance alters light's course and speed.

www.newscientist.com...

The speed of light is no longer the speed of light. By simply manipulating the type of matter light is transmitted through, the speed of light is nearly infinite.

The implication is that the silver metamaterial is altering the physics of light. If this is correct, then light is also having an effect on the silver metamaterial. What is this effect and if one was to fire a laser beam and then shoot a silver metamaterial through it, would it defy known physics and go beyond the speed of light?

Will humanity reach other stars within our lifetimes and beam back live coverage of alien landscapes using silver metamaterial mediums? If only....

reply to post by DoorKnobEddie

The metal component that reduces the refractive index also increases absorption, so the light can't travel far, says Polman. Still, the material could be used to transmit light rapidly over the very short distances in optical integrated circuits, he says.

The material being used is a double edged sword. It allows light to travel faster (relatively speaking) however the nature of the material also inhibits light from travelling distance via increased absorbtion.

None the less, it will certainly help with computing and perhaps act as an stepping stone for broader and larger scale discoveries.

Cool

Originally posted by DoorKnobEddie
The speed of light is no longer the speed of light.

No.
It never has been, except in the minds of the uneducated mass media.
The "speed of light" often referred to is only that of light in a vacuum. Any other place has always been different.

Originally posted by DoorKnobEddie
By simply manipulating the type of matter light is transmitted through, the speed of light is nearly infinite.

No.
The reporter is sensationalising things by using the phrase "near infinite".
Its not so. The increase in speed over that in a vacuum... yes greater, but nothing to do with approaching infinity.

Originally posted by DoorKnobEddie
The implication is that the silver metamaterial is altering the physics of light.

No.
The laws of physics are not broken.
Moreover, the increase in speed is only that of the phase velocity, which is almost useless "trick" and contributes nothing towards getting information to go faster from one place to another.


Edit - here is an article from twelve years ago giving a simple analogy of why phase velocity faster than light effects arent the thing you think they are.

Originally posted by MDDoxs
reply to post by DoorKnobEddie

 

The metal component that reduces the refractive index also increases absorption, so the light can't travel far, says Polman. Still, the material could be used to transmit light rapidly over the very short distances in optical integrated circuits, he says.

The material being used is a double edged sword. It allows light to travel faster (relatively speaking) however the nature of the material also inhibits light from travelling distance via increased absorbtion.

None the less, it will certainly help with computing and perhaps act as an stepping stone for broader and larger scale discoveries.

Cool

edit on 8-1-2013 by MDDoxs because: (no reason given)

Actually this is good news. It means that there is a definite and measurable interaction between light the silver metamaterial.

The scientists need to establish whether the increased absorption actually propels the light. If not, then another metamaterial that permits light to travel at an infinite speed should be sought.

When silver metamaterials absorb light, what are the electrons doing or are they converted into something else?
Does the metamaterial heat up or does it increase in mass?

reply to post by DoorKnobEddie


I smell a rat.

There is nothing like "almost infinite", that is not a value or a possibility.

Plus if that experiment had any substance to it then it would have made much MUCH bigger waves.

Contradicting Einstein usually does that and the speed of light is one of the big points.

Originally posted by DoorKnobEddie
The speed of light is no longer the speed of light. By simply manipulating the type of matter light is transmitted through, the speed of light is nearly infinite.

A careful read of your source reveals otherwise:

But the speed of light has not, technically, been broken.

This makes the umpteenth article claiming the speed of light has been exceeded, but it's long been known what can and cannot exceed the speed of light and this article changes nothing about that knowledge.

Everyone should familiarize themselves with this explanation of things which can easily travel faster than light without breaking the speed of light barrier, so they don't go nuts when they read some sensationalized headline.

The phenomenon mentioned in the article has been known for a long time and the wiki even mentions the faster than light phase velocities of X-rays in glass:

Faster-than-light observations and experiments

There are situations in which it may seem that matter, energy, or information travels at speeds greater than c, but they do not. For example, as is discussed in the propagation of light in a medium section below, many wave velocities can exceed c. For example, the phase velocity of X-rays through most glasses can routinely exceed c,[36] but such waves do not convey any information.[37]

UMMM.....
If they go faster than the speed of light, can you see the photons before they are transmitted through the bar?
Just asking,............
Err if photons are going faster than the speed of light are they still visible?

Originally posted by stirling
UMMM.....
If they go faster than the speed of light, can you see the photons before they are transmitted through the bar?
Just asking,............

Err if photons are going faster than the speed of light are they still visible?

edit on 9-1-2013 by stirling because: (no reason given)

The simple answer is they are not going faster than the speed of light.

"Light speed" is the speed light travels through a vacuum. The speed of light is altered by the medium it travels through. This is not something new.

reply to post by OccamsRazor04

I see; light has a fixed speed in a vacuum. However, a medium can alter the speed of light and make it go faster. Am I correct?

Suppose you fire a laser at one of these newly discovered Earth like planets and within this beam sits a metamaterial coated space ship. Will the potential interaction of the metamaterial coated space ship make it go faster than the speed of light?

More interestingly, the space ship could also draw energy from the laser beam and sustain life support systems.

Whatcha think bout dat?

Originally posted by DoorKnobEddie
reply to post by OccamsRazor04

 

I see. light has a fixed speed in a vacuum. However, a medium can alter the speed of light and make it go faster. Am I correct?

No. Light is a form of energy, and to repeat the quote in my previous post:

There are situations in which it may seem that matter, energy, or information travels at speeds greater than c, but they do not.

c, of course, being the speed of light in a vacuum.

Some things other than matter, energy, and information can travel faster than c, as explained in the link, and that's what the OP story is about.

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Originally posted by DoorKnobEddie
reply to post by OccamsRazor04

 

I see; light has a fixed speed in a vacuum. However, a medium can alter the speed of light and make it go faster. Am I correct?

Suppose you fire a laser at one of these newly discovered Earth like planets and within this beam sits a metamaterial coated space ship. Will the potential interaction of the metamaterial coated space ship make it go faster than the speed of light?

More interestingly, the space ship could also draw energy from the laser beam and sustain life support systems.

Whatcha think bout dat?

edit on 10-1-2013 by DoorKnobEddie because: (no reason given)

Well, a medium can alter the speed yes. Typically this is a medium making the speed slower. Coating a ship will not do anything, you would need the medium to reach from Earth to the destination and travel along it. Even then, this is NOT infinite or near infinite speeds. It is simply 10 times faster than light (more or less). So a planet 20 light years away would still take 2 years to traverse.

Now, this is the tricky part. There are multiple "parts" to light. There is Phase Veolicty and Group Velocity. Phase Velocity is what is sped up by this metamaterial. Group Velocity contains the information. The metamaterial used to make the Phase Velocity 10 times faster also renders the Group Velocity go much, much slower. I don't see how this will account for fast transfer of information, as Group Velocity contains all the information. Group Velocity can never surpass c, the speed of light in a vacuum.

reply to post by DoorKnobEddie


OP, do not believe them.
They are gullible and incapable of thinking on their own at best or shills at worst.
The speed of light (of photons, in fact) has NEVER been constant.
This is a claim that has NEVER been proven.
Photons' speed has been postulated as constant to make calculations easier and by ideology.
By the way, the concept of vacuum is meaningless. There is never NOTHING. Neutrinos (if not electric-magnetic plasma) are always present.

In fact the constance of the speed of light has been constantly (pun intended) disproven via experiments like this (look up "tunnel effect and speed of light") and even by astrophysical/cosmological data like different redshift emanating from two galaxies (or a galaxy and a quasar) linked by a bridge of matter for example.
These two galaxies are, therefore at the same distance, and yet they don't show the same redshift value.

They try and come with non-responses that obviously make no sense but it doesn't matter, most of the people don't understand it anyway and just believe, others are scared to lose their jobs, but most importantly, they would need to come up with an alternative theory which would have to be validated by their peers... And have all been bought one way or another.

Quantum mechanics has killed science a hundred years ago.
Try and look up concepts like non-locality principle, quantum entanglement, quantum superposition (state) - with the (in)famous Schroedinger's cat thought experience to describe it in lay terms at a macro level -, virtual particles, wave/particle duality etc...

It would be laughable if it wasn't the scam of the century. There is so much to say...
Quantum physics is deeply linked with mysticism and Taoism (Pauli and C.G Jung's book, Bohr and his choice of the taoist symbol when receiving its price for his 'work' on the atom, the fact that ALL New Age gurus use QP to justify their teachings and beliefs/dogmas...)