Slowing Light Down to 38 MPH

But in 1998, Hau, for the first time in history, slowed light to 38 miles an hour, about the speed of rush-hour traffic. Two years later, she brought light to a complete halt in a cloud of ultracold atoms. Next, she restarted the stalled light without changing any of its characteristics, and sent it on its way. These highly successful experiments brought her a tenured professorship at Harvard University and a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation award to spend as she pleased.

via Light and matter united


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *