Light stopped completely for a minute inside a crystal: The basis of quantum memory

Originally posted by goou111
reply to post by Nevertheless

 

lol all I said was it made me think of that. I never said the article had anything to do with it

If I create a thread and refer to an article about a new Car, and I happen to think of bananas while doing it, I don't necessarily mention it unless it makes some sense.

So you are saying that you just sandwiched something completely random about some crystal skulls for some random reason containing information stored in them? And when I asked about it, you are asking me if --> I

reply to post by Nevertheless


It wasn't wrong of him to think you might have been trying to be a little rude - This IS ATS, where the crystal skulls being used along with lasers to store and retrieve data has been discussed many times. He's going to be far, far from the only member who thinks about those skulls when reading this article, and I think you know that.

reply to post by Nevertheless


go troll another thread lol

Interesting!

If somebody wants some in-depth scientific information about this experiment:
Stopped Light and Image Storage by Electromagnetically Induced Transparency up to the Regime of One Minute (PDF)

Here's the setup, for example:

this really could be "it", the first step in the next huge computing and data storage revolution. Stored light.

Well, this and holographic storage, there might be something there, too.

But I do like the idea of the crystal skulls... If we are figuring this out NOW, has it been figured out BEFORE, long ago, and what kind of information is there just sitting around on some random rocks?

Hmmm... The mind boggles...

reply to post by Arbitrageur

They won't stop using spin that way, but you have a point about the confusion.

haha, very true. let's be honest, even physicists don't know wtf spin is. that's why finding a description of spin in the quantum sense is difficult.

it can sort of be described, but as for what it really is? all we know are some properties that have been observed.

lashfl;asjdf;asdljf;lsj double post.

Originally posted by goou111
link

Another quote, at the end of the article:

Light-based memory that preserves quantum coherence (such as polarization and entanglement) is vital for the creation of a long-range quantum network. Just as with conventional, electronic routers, quantum routers must be able to store incoming packets, and then retransmit them — which is exactly what today’s discovery allows. Even so, though, there are still a few barriers to overcome before we can roll out a quantum internet — namely, we must find a method of coherently storing light that introduces so little noise that single photons can still be reliably stored/retrieved, and we need to do it at room temperature, too. Cryogenics might be acceptable at the data center level, but I can’t imagine having a cryogenically cooled router in my house.

The term "quantum internet" made me remember this article from Scientific American: "Google and NASA Snap Up Quantum Computer D-Wave Two."

reply to post by goou111


This could form the basis of a new laser technology, low power and slow build up with a pulse of incredible intensity if the process can be made variable and the re-emited light condensed, weaponisation is the down side but this may also usher in a new age of medical and communication laser technology's.
S+F
Laser Plasma propulsion may also benefit (you know the model NASA was working on where a ring of reflected laser would explode the air and create a propulsive effect, well they used ground based but this could make the tech small enough to be installed in the craft - only suitable for atmospheric propulsion though but then again bye bye jet engine.).

Couldn't this work as some invisibility cloak if someone was wearing a cloak or suit made of these crystals?

I mean, we only see everything around us because light bounces off everything, but if that light is trapped, then surely this would work?

OMG!
weaponize this and you have a Very powerful laser gun.
it store light, holds it.
so just keep punting more in until you have a Very big charge.

then release it all in a Blast of laser.
you now have the Future laser blaster.
I Claim Copy Rights on this.

From linked source

Not only does this leave the light trapped inside, but the opacity means that the light inside can no longer bounce around — the light, in a word, has been stopped.

No, it hasn't been stopped, it's been switched off like you would a lamp. This explanation does not accurately describe the dynamic occurring. The title of this thread should more accurately read...'Photons Absorbed by Atomic Lattice of Crystal and then Emitted From It.'

It is important to note that the photons going in are not the same photons going out. The data they carry is the same, because the mechanism of the experiment was able to retain the data's coherence when the photons were absorbed by the atoms of the crystal's lattice. In a sense, they etched the data onto the atoms dynamics, and were able to transfer that etching back into photonic form. Basically, the experiment was a quantum pump.

reply to post by buddha

OMG! weaponize this and you have a Very powerful laser gun. it store light, holds it. so just keep punting more in until you have a Very big charge. then release it all in a Blast of laser. you now have the Future laser blaster. I Claim Copy Rights on this.

this is why i'm so careful about the ideas and information i release, because the first application most think of is some form of weapon.

what you're talking about is actually how a regular laser works. storing photons in a chamber until they bounce in the correct direction and are allowed to leave the polarized side as a beam.

at any rate, storing too much energy in the crystal would probably disrupt the quantum state that allows storage in the first place.

Originally posted by goou111
Hello

This is very interesting Scientists at the University of Darmstadt in Germany have stopped light for one whole minute

Just thinking about this makes my head hurt.

If you can stop light:

1) doesn't that, at least, change our current 'laws' of physics and throw hordes of stuff out the window?

2) I just can't see the practical use for it.

3) Can information be stored in light? Wouldn't that require that light be fixed in it's particle aspect?

4) I don't even know enough to ask decent questions.

REALLY KEWL

reply to post by goou111


So this light experienced as large a change in mass as is possible, presumably. If there's any way to prove whether or not photons have mass, this would surely be it. If you can't measure a very small amount of mass, maybe you could at least detect a change. Of course, I don't really subscribe to the convenient 'particle and a wave, has mass but travels at the speed of light, 96% of the universe is missing' model, so I don't think they'd find any mass anyway, but the idea of slow light is something that interests me greatly.

Originally posted by greyartist
Couldn't this work as some invisibility cloak if someone was wearing a cloak or suit made of these crystals?

I mean, we only see everything around us because light bounces off everything, but if that light is trapped, then surely this would work?

You'd need a mix of cameras and LEDs - they are getting close:

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
reply to post by buddha

 

OMG! weaponize this and you have a Very powerful laser gun. it store light, holds it. so just keep punting more in until you have a Very big charge. then release it all in a Blast of laser. you now have the Future laser blaster. I Claim Copy Rights on this.

this is why i'm so careful about the ideas and information i release, because the first application most think of is some form of weapon.

what you're talking about is actually how a regular laser works. storing photons in a chamber until they bounce in the correct direction and are allowed to leave the polarized side as a beam.

at any rate, storing too much energy in the crystal would probably disrupt the quantum state that allows storage in the first place.

My miss understanding as well thank you for the correction, the more appropriate application then would be solar energy production unless the re emission could be synchronised as if it is a lattice then surely that would produce a fairly predictable emission direction unless it is only emitted at the very edge of the lattice structure, Next time I will read the thread more carefully (just like me to jump before looking)
Thank you,.

Originally posted by LABTECH767
My miss understanding as well thank you for the correction, the more appropriate application then would be solar energy production unless the re emission could be synchronised as if it is a lattice then surely that would produce a fairly predictable emission direction unless it is only emitted at the very edge of the lattice structure, Next time I will read the thread more carefully (just like me to jump before looking) Thank you,.

Seems like you're still guessing at applications instead of referring to the article. First it was weapons, now it's solar energy production.

The title of the linked article refers to "The basis of quantum memory" so what's wrong with a memory application?

However I'm not sure how practical it is even for that, at least in its current stage of development. If there will be a practical use at all, that will require a lot more development.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Absolutely nothing but if you can store light (Depending on how efficient it is) then you can obviously release the energy as re emitted photons or as another form such as electricity, I am a fan of quantum theory but as you know even now after so much research and ground breaking discovery's it is still a Pandora's box and not a finalised theory indeed it is a very active field of research that has led to more than one failed career.
It could still be used for laser production but only as a storage and emission method to allow stored light energy to be released simultaneously into a focusing chamber (or crystal if you preferred the old type of laser such as the polished flawless ruby with mirror polished ends) and so increase overall light input to the focusing chamber allowing an even lower energy to output potential.
Using light to transmit data is nothing new as you obviously know but there are so many other potential applications if this discovery is anything like many of us hope. Sadly weaponisation of any new technology will always be a possible outcome but imagine a silent emission less high speed air craft using a variant on that NASA test bed model that could be the air freighters of the future and even revolutionise something as humble as a hover craft, Star wars speeder anyone.

LabTech767:

...if you can store light...

You seem to be having a hard time understanding this. You cannot store light for later use. You cannot store photons in a receptacle like bees in a box. You can store a photons energy by having it absorbed by atoms and then release that energy, as in this experiment, but the original photon no longer exists. The photons released from the atoms are newly-created photons. Hope that clears up the misunderstanding.