Light crawls through cold-atom cloud

Light is slowed to a humble bicyclist's pace in an experiment that forces light pulses to slog through a cloud of very cold atoms under the sway of a specially tuned laser.

References:

Hau, L.V., et al. 1999. Light speed reduction to 17 metres per second in an ultracold atomic gas. Nature 397(Feb. 18):594.

Further Readings:

Weiss, P. 1998. Condensate divided? Quantum unity stands. Science News 154(Nov. 28):342.

Sources:

Lene V. Hau
Rowland Institute for Science
100 Edwin H. Land Boulevard
Cambridge, MA 02142

Marlan O. Scully
Texas A&M University
Department of Physics
College Station, TX 77843

From Science News, Vol. 155, No. 13, March 27, 1999, p. 207. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.

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