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Researchers Chill Mirror to Near Absolute Zero
An anonymous reader writes "Physicists have managed to cool a dime-sized mirror to within one degree of absolute zero. This is the lowest laser-induced freeze yet achieved with a visible object. Laser cooling involves firing pulses of light at a specific frequency that exactly matches an atom's motions."
What's the significance of chilling a dime-sized mirror, vs chilling a dime?
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the surface has to be highly reflective for this to work. If it absorbed the photons, then it's temperature would increase, and if it was transparent the photons wouldn't interact with the material very much, and thus would not be able to cool it.
IANAP, so I figured this was some sort of breakthrough. As it turns out:
1. Others have gotten much, much closer to 0 K using atoms and laser cooling.
2. Others have gotten much, much closer to 0 K using solid objects and different cooling methods.
3. Their method has the potential of getting closer to 0 K.
So, even if it is not a breakthrough it is still impressive.
Ronald said nothing. He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse, and rode madly off in all directions.
The real world application of this will be truly shown when they find the exact frequency on beer.
Then, gaze upon its brilliance.
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could someone explain what the significance of this is?
Perhaps we could reflect on it.
Absolutely... to a degree.
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My exwife could do that with just a glance. It may not have been one degree over Absolute Zero but it sure felt that way.
In my opinion, scientists may be able to approach absolute zero but they will never effectively reach it. They may hit a point at which it can be proclaimed as "good enough", but since the entire system must contain no energy and energy will always leak into the system from the universe, absolute zero will not be reached in actuality.
The benefits of moving closer to absolute zero are that we can better understand exactly what atoms do when macro-forces are canceled out and only micro-forces apply, how the building blocks relate to each other in an energy-less environment, and if any other "laws" apply to our universe that we just weren't able to witness otherwise.
It has many applications in astronomy. During the winter, the only expedition to climb to the top of the Mauna Kea are to fill the liquid nitrogen and liquid helium tanks of those huge telescopes. We don't realize it but getting pretty picture in IR requires that you more of less shut down the black body radiation of your optics. With liquid helium they cool the CCDs to 4.5 Kelvin. They use so much of the stuff that they need to fill the tanks every other week. I admit that I have no idea how big is the said tank but laser cooling would open the way to mostly unattended (think orbital) telescopes for a much broader part of the spectrum. At the moment we send IR orbital scopes with big tanks of liquid helium which is dead lift weight that could be used for larger optics and we drop the scopes in the ocean when they run out of the stuff. Spitzer, unlike Hubble, will be useless soon and will not be able to perform observations even if all the mechanical and electronics are still in top condition. If you ever visit the Mauna Kea, notice the frost patches inside the observatory. It's kind of cold up there but the best experience is inside the observatory: it's freezing, everyone is dizzy after climbing the stair (the air is really thin) and you see all those big pipes with cryo-steam. It feels like the visit to the cryo chamber in Akira.