What Is The Future Of Military & Defense?

Researchers at MIT and Harvard say they
have found a way to make photons bind
together to form molecules – with the end
result akin to a Star Wars’ light saber.
“It’s not an in-apt analogy to compare
this to light sabers,” Harvard physics Prof.
Mikhail Lukin said in a report. “When
these photons interact with each other,
they’re pushing against and deflect each
other. The physics of what’s happening in
these molecules is similar to what we see
in the movies.”
Lukin and his colleagues at the Harvard-
MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms described
their work in the professional journal
Nature. Until now, getting light to bind
together like molecules has been
theoretical, since photons have
historically been considered “massless,”
and so not able to interact with each
other.
The wizards of Cambridge seem to have
changed that.
“What we have done is create a special
type of medium in which photons interact
with each other so strongly that they
begin to act as though they have mass,
and they bind together to form
molecules,” Lukin said.
Before you get your Jedi on, however, the
researchers see this “new matter” as a
tool for something quantum computing –
using light instead of electricity to move
data – and possibly for creating complex
three-dimensional structures from light.
“What it will be useful for we don’t know
yet, but it’s a new state of matter, so we
are hopeful that new applications may
emerge as we continue to investigate
these photonic molecules’ properties,”
Lukin said.

Get me here Facebook