This New Form of Light Is a Physical Molecule, Here’s How We Made It
Shooting photons through a rubidium gas cloud has some surprising results: photonic molecules. Are we one step closer to light crystals? Quantum Teleportation Is Real, Here's How It Works...
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Photons are oddballs. When they’re not busy being waves, they’re massless particles that can travel at light speed because, well, that’s what they are, little packets of light. For decades it was also thought photons didn’t interact with each other, but recently researchers have discovered how to bind photons together as though they were molecules. With flashlights, unlike ghostbusting equipment, you can cross the streams all you want. They don’t bounce off each other or cause every molecule in your body to explode because photons don’t much care for one another. Unless, that is, they’re fired through a ultracold cloud of rubidium atoms. When scientists from Harvard and MIT fired a weak laser through a rubidium cloud, they observed photons comin...
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Photons are oddballs. When they’re not busy being waves, they’re massless particles that can travel at light speed because, well, that’s what they are, little packets of light. For decades it was also thought photons didn’t interact with each other, but recently researchers have discovered how to bind photons together as though they were molecules. With flashlights, unlike ghostbusting equipment, you can cross the streams all you want. They don’t bounce off each other or cause every molecule in your body to explode because photons don’t much care for one another. Unless, that is, they’re fired through a ultracold cloud of rubidium atoms. When scientists from Harvard and MIT fired a weak laser through a rubidium cloud, they observed photons comin...
