New Form of Matter Melds Lasers, Superconductors

sterlingda writes "Physicists at the University of Pittsburgh have demonstrated a new form of matter that melds the characteristics of lasers and superconductors. The work introduces a new method of moving energy from one point to another as well as a low-energy means of producing a light beam like that from a laser. The new state is a solid filled with a collection of energy particles known as 'polaritons' that have been trapped and slowed using a technique similar to that used to produce a Bose-Einstein condensate. The work is published in the May 18 issue of Science (subscription required to read beyond the abstract)."

Comments

Re:Circus physics

[ElScorcho]

You want "polaritons, and fermions, and gluons, and quarks, and mesons, and bosons, all together with photons". Tell you what, I'll get right on that. After all, it's only a matter of coming up with a Grand Unified Theory, and how hard could that possibly be? Why hasn't anyone taken this simple step yet? How could we, the physics community, have overlooked such an obvious solution to the problem of proliferating subatomic particles?

It's such an easy way to win a Nobel Prize and have my name right up there with Einstein and Newton and Dirac.

Polariton Lasers Are More Efficient

[sanman2]

Here's another good article I found:

http://optics.org/cws/article/research/27439

Again, a more energy-efficient laser sounds like it could be used for nuclear fusion, or even just for more energy efficient consumer electronics (eg. DVD players)

Isn't Laser-TV supposed to be coming out this Xmas? I'd read that Novalux is working on improving the power of their Necsel laser modules for that purpose. If polariton lasers are 10 times more efficient than laser diodes and can operate at room temp, then maybe they'd fill the bill.

Re:Bozos will blow up this planet one day

[DAtkins]

Nah, you don't need to worry. This is a special class of micro black holes that exist more on the quantum level, so they behave differently. There isn't enough mass on Earth (probably in the solar system) to create a black hole of the sort that would give you a really bad day. It's sort of like our fusion experiments... without enough mass for the reaction to power itself through gravity, they aren't naturally self-sustaining. These micro black holes don't have the mass to influence anything or to exist without continuous energy input.