Chinese scientists slow light speed by 10,000 times: Breakthrough for optical communication
We all know that the speed of light in a vacuum is approximately 299,792 km/s (equivalent to the commonly known 186,282 miles/s). In other mediums, it can propagate at a slower speed. If light passes through another material, its speed will be slowed down.
Most transparent materials slow down light to a very small degree. Greater differences require the use of special materials or even cooled quantum gases.
Light slowed down by Chinese scientists
Scientists from the University of Guangxi and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed an innovative method that allows light to be slowed down significantly - by even 10,000 times. The research results were published in Nano Letters magazine.
The new method is based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), which uses sophisticated laser techniques to manipulate electrons within a gas stored in a vacuum.
Laser light can pass through the medium, but at the same time, it slows down considerably. Nevertheless, this developed method involves reducing the amount of light and energy.
To reduce these losses and improve the efficiency of the entire system, the scientists used some principles of EIT to control light and designed a new material that slows down light. This material is a kind of metasurface - a synthetic, two-dimensional structure with properties not found in nature. The metasurfaces proved to be dramatically better in terms of how they store and release energy.
According to published research, light can be slowed by more than 10,000 times. Importantly, the scientists managed to lower light loss 5 times when compared to other similar methods.
Breakthrough announced by Chinese scientists
This new research revolutionizes the field of controlling light propagation. The effectiveness and scalability of this research make it a promising avenue for future experiments. This discovery could have wide-reaching implications for many technological solutions like broadband internet and quantum computing.
"We believe our work provides a completely new direction for realizing ultra-strong light-matter interactions in nanophotonic chips," the scientists wrote in the published article.
