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Frozen light stays fresh longer

Researchers trap beam in an ultracold cloud of atoms for 1.5 seconds

Forget about ziplock bags. A cloud of ultracold atoms can store a beam of yellow light for 1.5 seconds. That timescale isn’t impressive for frozen peas, but it’s enough time for light to circle the Earth 10 times under normal conditions, researchers led by Lene Hau of Harvard University report.

TRAPPING LIGHT Researchers stored yellow light for more than a second in a matter imprint (dark blue) amidst a cloud of ultracold sodium atoms (gray). The beam that emerges (bottom) has the same properties but is weaker than the original beam (top). ~~ Anne Goodsell

This ability to store light may lead to more efficient ways to communicate, as well as new ways to explore quantum mechanical properties such as entanglement.