Slow Light = Fast Computing

yohaas writes "The Washington Post is reporting that scientists have been able to slow the speed of light while still maintaining its ability to transmit information. The researchers have even developed a way to 'tune' the process, modulating how fast or slow the light goes within controlled circumstances. From the article: 'Scientists said yesterday that they had achieved a long-sought goal of slowing waves of light to a relatively leisurely pace and using those harnessed pulses to store an image. Physicists said the new approach to taming light could hasten the arrival of a futuristic era in which computers and other devices will process information on optical beams instead of with electricity, which for all its spark is still cumbersome compared with light.'"

Comments

Re:*cough*bullsheet*cough*

[julesh]

There's no way a single photon makes a stencil image.

There's a well-known effect that when you perform Young's double-slit experiment with single photons, the interference patterns still remain. If a single photon can interfere with itself, I'm sure it can make an image.

Re:Moo

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

The latter article is about phase velocity. Phase velocity is the speed at which the individual peaks and valleys of the signal appear to travel. But peaks and valleys aren't actual 'things' and you can't transmit information using them. (See here.) This latest story is about the rate at which you can transmit information, so it's about group velocity.

Despite the fact that the theory was worked out more well over a century ago, almost every modern pop science story about manipulating the speed of light leaves out these crucial points.