Physicists Conjure the First Super-Photon, Creating a Whole New Kind of Light Source
Physicists from the University of Bonn are looking at things in a whole new light, quite literally. Through the clever use of mirrors and some smart science, researchers there have created a wholly new source of light by cooling photons to the point that they condense into a "super photon." The so-called Bose-Einstein condensate made up of photons was, until now, thought impossible. "Super particles" have been created before, but never out of light. For instance, take rubidium atoms down to a low enough temperature in a compact space, and they quickly become indistinguishable, behaving like a single particle (known as a Bose-Einstein condensate). And in theory, this should also work with photons. But it does not, for if you start to cool photons down they disappear. Perhaps expectedly, light doesn't chill very well. Related ArticlesA Photon-Powered Nanomotor Made Out of DNANew Method Lets Researchers Entangle Five Photons For the First Time,...