Have you ever wondered what “frozen light” means? Discover the intriguing concept behind this term and delve into its significance in the world of physics. #frozenlight #physics #light #meaning
Unraveling the Mystery of “Frozen Light”
What is “Frozen Light”?
It refers to a unique state of matter where light appears to be temporarily trapped or slowed down. This phenomenon occurs when light is manipulated in a way that its speed is greatly reduced, leading to fascinating properties.
Significance in Physics
Understanding “frozen light” has significant implications in various fields, such as quantum mechanics and optical technologies. It opens up possibilities for groundbreaking advancements and innovative research.
Curiosity Sparked
The concept of “frozen light” sparks curiosity and invites exploration into the intricate nature of photons. How does light behave differently in this state? What practical applications can arise from this phenomenon? Delve deeper into this captivating subject to uncover its mysteries.
When physicists talk about quantum phenomenon they often times use classical language to attempt to capture the essence of what is happening but classical physics cannot really capture quantum physics, so it leads to some confusions like this. A classic example of this is [Quantum teleportation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation). When someone thinks of teleportation they probably think of matter being here and then being physically teleported over there. But quantum teleportation is about having the matter in two places, but putting the matter “over there” in the exact same quantum state as the matter “here.” Cool, important work. But it’s not Star Trek.
“Frozen light” is a similar thing. [If you look the American Physical Society summary of the paper](https://physics.aps.org/articles/v6/80) you can see that light isn’t actually “coming to a stop” but instead the exact coherence state of a pulse of light is being stored, and then that exact same (exact in a quantum state- some coherence) can be recreated.
This is actually a very different phenomenon from scientist who build special mediums which dramatically slow down the speed light propagates. As you may know, the speed of light is the speed light propagates through a vacuum. When light passes through non-vacuum, it propagates slower. How much slower it propagates is called the [refractive index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractive_index). So, while some “normal materials” can in one way dramatically slow down how fast light propagates (for instance, diamond has a refractive index of 2.4, so light propagates at 41% of it’s vacuum speed through diamond), for “regular” materials it still travels really fast. But scientists have built special materials which can slow the propagation speeds of light to absurd levels. For instance, [using a medium of supercooled sodium atoms, they were able to slow light to just 38 mph (about 17 m/s)](https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=99111&page=1).
So seeing these materials which make the propagation of light slow down so dramatically, one might think that “frozen light” was just taking this even further, but it’s actually a completely different phenomenon.
Side note: you’ll notice I always just said “light propagates at a slower speed” instead of saying light “traveled at a slower speed.” The reason being, discussing why light propagates at slower speeds in different materials always makes physicists get into big fights, which is not really the point of this discussion. So I phrased it in a way that I think (although I could be wrong) everyone would agree with.