Physicists create new source of light: Bose-Einstein condensate 'super-photons'

Science Daily ( November 24, 2010 )



This three year old story isn't exactly news, but something about it got my attention yesterday.

• This photonic Bose-Einstein condensate is a completely new source of light that has characteristics resembling lasers.
• The Bonn physicists then increased the quantity of photons between the mirrors by exciting the pigment solution using a laser. This allowed them to concentrate the cooled-off light particles so strongly that they condensed into a "super-photon."[emphasis added]
• "We are currently not capable of producing lasers that generate very short-wave light -- i.e. in the UV or X-ray range," explained Jan Klärs. "With a photonic Bose-Einstein condensate this should, however, be possible."

Question:  Am I to understand that they succeeded in capturing light?  Does this mean that they can capture and release light at will?  Does this also mean that light could be added to it indefinitely so that it could be released over a period of time?



This could be a quite significant discovery.  So what has been done in the last 3 years?



I googled it and found a few more stories.  It has been replicated in the lab.  More evidence that these can be collected

• The microwaves from the cavity interacted with the material, generating polaritons. These drifted preferentially along the wire toward the aluminum-free zone, where they collected and condensed.
• In other words, the electronic properties of the material itself replaced the need for cooling, allowing the quasiparticles to gather and condense into a BEC. The experimenters confirmed this effect by detecting the telltale light emission.[emphasis added]

But at least some of the light must be escaping.  Otherwise, there would be no emission.  This implies a leakage that would limit the amount of time that the entity could exist.  By the way, I have heard before of the ability to slow down light.  So, this may be a way of slowing it down.  But what could you do with this?



Here's another link with a video.  Perhaps sometime, I'll have some time to watch the video, but not now.



Very interesting stuff.  One application mentioned in another link above was to use the BEC photons to etch even more powerful computer chips.  It is possible because of the X-ray laser that can now be produced, which are of smaller wavelength.  There are other applications for X-ray lasers, I'm sure.