5 ms·
An actually readable explanation that can be understood. However, it seems to me that the actual accomplishment, as the author mentioned, is our newly acquired
by thehme 13y ago
An actually readable explanation that can be understood. However, it seems to me that the actual accomplishment, as the author mentioned, is our newly acquired ability of "storing quantum information" and not actually "stopping light". I like the "H's" references...how interesting that they all have H last names - perhaps there is a German stat of last names starting with H.
- Argorak 13y agoWe are tidy people: http://www.datendieter.de/item/Buchstabenhaeufigkeit_von_deutschen_Nachnamen http://www.datendieter.de/item/Buchstabenhaeufigkeit_von_deu... (In german, but the picture speaks for itself)
- morpher 13y agoThe article discusses at the outset that the distinction between "storing info" and "stopping light" is subtle, I not nonexistent in this case. When light travels through a material, one can treat it either at a macro level of a light wave slowing down, or at a micro level of light travelling at vacuum speed but being continuously absorbed and re-emitted. The former is a much simpler picture and captures the essence of what is happening. So, if you use a material (as H^3 have done) in which the effective speed becomes vanishingly small, this is "stopping light" in the only sense one can talk about.