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Scientists Trap a Rainbow

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that Physicists from both the University of Surrey and Salford University have devised a method to trap a multi-colored rainbow of light inside a prism. "Previous attempts to slow and capture light have involved extremely low or cryogenic temperatures, have been extremely costly, and have only worked with one specific frequency of light at a time. The technique proposed by Professor Hess and Mr Kosmas Tsakmakidis involves the use of negative refractive index metamaterials along with the exploitation of the Goos Hänchen effect, which shows that when light hits an object or an interface between two media it does not immediately bounce back but seems to travel very slightly along that object, or in the case of metamaterials, travels very slightly backwards along the object."

1 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Re:it's not all fun and games... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yes, thank you, it should. I'm just an illiterate oaf who couldn't handle a qwerty keyboard to save my life.