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

reply to post by elysiumfire


Sorry if you misunderstand me but I am replying to another comment, no you can not store light but you most certainly can convert it to another state and that is how photo synthesis works, and in a standard photo voltaic cell the photon's bombarding the material cause the outer valence orbital shells around the atomic structure to rise in energy to an unstable orbit were they can be harvested as an electron flow now the suggestion is that the material can successfully absorb light before re-emitting it after one minute, if this is true then the light absorption has caused an atomic structure change however since we are talking about the photon actually being trapped somehow and not absorbed then this is not relevant but either way the same application can be made of the science behind it.
We have already heard about the previous experiment were photons were slowed down but if correct this work is on an entirely different magnitude, Oh and you can in theory trap photons, you just need a very high gravity field.

I find it interesting that the post is about light being absorbed and re emitted not stopped but he fact that the information remains coherent is interesting and would indicate that the crystal lattice has a highly un conductive (electrically speaking) structure meaning the stored energy is localised within the matrix, I wonder what level of degradation to the original data may occur.

What we have here is a failure to illuminate.

What kind of memory are they trying to create?

If it is a permanent storage, a clear crystal can store a very large amount of information. The information is written in the same way as CD - by burning which introduces a defect in the matrix.

If it is temporary storage, a crystal is not good.

Permanent storage is similar to writing on an optical disk (in layers). The different wave-length of laser beam will pick up information from different layers.

Originally posted by LABTECH767
I find it interesting that the post is about light being absorbed and re emitted not stopped . . .

The article words it this way:

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.

What's wrong with saying the light is stopped? What is inaccurate about it?

Originally posted by Mary Rose
What's wrong with saying the light is stopped? What is inaccurate about it?

It's like saying a fax machine sends a piece of paper at almost the speed of light. The statement is a generalization but is inaccurate because the fax machine doesn't send any paper, it converts writing on the paper to an electronic signal, and sends that.

Your car can pull up to a stop sign, stop, and start going again. A photon can't stop like that, and hasn't been stopped in the experiment discussed in the subject of this thread.

reply to post by Mary Rose

What's wrong with saying the light is stopped? What is inaccurate about it?

the photons are absorbed. they are no longer in the form of photons. the energy is still there, but it isn't light energy. it has the potential to be light energy, but it isn't.

ever wonder why light bulbs make light? exciting the metal filament causes the atoms to throw off energy in the form of photons. this is exactly the opposite, photons being absorbed into atoms for a time, and ejected later.

it is similar to the sun warming the ground. photons being absorbed, exciting the atoms with their energy. only in this situation, manipulating the crystal in a certain way at the quantum level causes it to eject energy in the same pattern that it was received, though the pattern degrades with time.

Yep, I also wanted to point this out. Photons themselves are not (and cannot be) stopped or even slowed down like a car. They always travel at c, and when stopped their energy is transferred to the medium and the photon ceases to exist.

What is slowed down, or stopped, is the apparent speed of light. When they say that light has been slowed down, it only means there's a greater delay between absorbtion and re-emission of the photons. If you manage to prevent re-emission for a few seconds, you could say that you stopped light, but what it actually means is that you stopped the energy travelling in the form of light.

reply to post by Nevertheless


Haven't checked all the replies, someone may have already said this, but -

According to the Ancient Aliens folks, there could possibly be data stored in the crystal skulls. I agree that it doesn't relate to the OP though, since that refers to a totally different way of storing data in crystals.

Originally posted by Gu1tarJohn
reply to post by Nevertheless

 

Haven't checked all the replies, someone may have already said this, but -

According to the Ancient Aliens folks, there could possibly be data stored in the crystal skulls. I agree that it doesn't relate to the OP though, since that refers to a totally different way of storing data in crystals.

Ah thanks.
Except the skulls are apparently not that old, and definitely not created by creatures that do not exist on this planet.
But that's another topic, I guess.

Originally posted by wildespace
If you manage to prevent re-emission for a few seconds, you could say that you stopped light, but what it actually means is that you stopped the energy travelling in the form of light.

There is nothing wrong with the title of the article.

The article is clear:

With nowhere to go, the energy from the photons is picked up by atoms within the crystal, and the “data” carried by the photons is converted into atomic spin excitations.

Originally posted by Mary Rose

Originally posted by wildespace
If you manage to prevent re-emission for a few seconds, you could say that you stopped light, but what it actually means is that you stopped the energy travelling in the form of light.

There is nothing wrong with the title of the article.

The article is clear:

With nowhere to go, the energy from the photons is picked up by atoms within the crystal, and the “data” carried by the photons is converted into atomic spin excitations.

Yep, my post is more in regards of people saying "whoa, they stopped light!!!" like it's possible to just freeze light in its tracks and then let it go.

I too can only say 'awesome'.

Image if we could harness light within crystals to use as home lighting. How this would revolutionize our use of energy and or retention of data.

reply to post by InTheLight


? You mean gather the light energy in one crystalline lattice and then emit the energy more slowly re emitting photons over a longer time but at a reduced energy, Interesting hypothesis and whoever was first to market with these lighting stone's would make a fortune if they were cheap enough but I suspect a similar technology already exists and I am not talking solar storage but sometimes the patents end up in the wrong hands and a new avenue of technology is lost to use because some corporate entity believes it may impact there annual turnover.
Great thought though it would be cool and the safety applications for road side lighting that does not require power cables alone would make it a worthy investment.

Originally posted by Mary Rose
There is nothing wrong with the title of the article.

The article is clear:

With nowhere to go, the energy from the photons is picked up by atoms within the crystal, and the “data” carried by the photons is converted into atomic spin excitations.

Yes the article is clear and your quote explains exactly why the title is wrong.

You can try inserting 100 pennies into the dollar bill slot on a soda vending machine, but even if you could get the pennies inside, it won't work.

You have to convert those 100 pennies into a dollar bill, then it works. 100 pennies and a dollar bill have something in common (their value), but they are not the same.

Likewise, the photons and what they are converted into have something in common, but they are not the same. The photons do not stop, they are converted into something else. The title doesn't say the light is converted into something else like your quote from the body of the article says, it says the light stopped which it didn't.

It's like reading a title that says: "Man inserts 100 pennies in dollar bill slot, gets soda"

Then the body of the article says, "actually, he didn't do that. He exchanged the 100 pennies for a dollar bill, and inserted the dollar bill into the slot". That's the kind of distortion we have in the title of the article, sorry if you can't see it, but it's true.

Like many other ATS members I do not understand the science behind it but this technology can have some cool applications.

What about being able to cloak something invisable for one hour..or eventually for a day or two...?

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

That article states:

The machine will help the agencies work on artificial intelligence problems

and:

The D-Wave computer is unusual because it uses quantum bits (qubits) – bits that can exist in two states, on and off, simultaneously – to speed up calculations, and because it does not operate on the normal ‘gate’ model of computing . . .

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

Another related article, from PHYS ORG, is “Towards a global quantum network: Photoelectron trapping in double quantum dots.”

Crystal skulls were built in the 19th century when being a gentleman and discovering ancient artifacts and treasure were the "in" thing to do. The crystal skulls were "discovered" by the people who paid to have them built, in other words they are pseudo-archaeology. There is no ancient knowledge trapped in them, they're just neat looking objects built at the turn of the Industrial Age when the technology to build them was available in Europe...read a book lol

Originally posted by LABTECH767
reply to post by InTheLight

 

? You mean gather the light energy in one crystalline lattice and then emit the energy more slowly re emitting photons over a longer time but at a reduced energy, Interesting hypothesis and whoever was first to market with these lighting stone's would make a fortune if they were cheap enough but I suspect a similar technology already exists and I am not talking solar storage but sometimes the patents end up in the wrong hands and a new avenue of technology is lost to use because some corporate entity believes it may impact there annual turnover.
Great thought though it would be cool and the safety applications for road side lighting that does not require power cables alone would make it a worthy investment.

Or if the quantum energy is harnessed (trapped for years?) and emits light then would it not produce light until it's evolutionary end? How long would it take for this energy to degrade? Instead of emitting the energy more slowly or reducing it's energy, we would have a 3-way dimming mechanism, or something like that. Interesting science...it's just a matter of figuring out how to maintain it.