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A new way to control the speed of light

18.04.2019

A group of researchers from the University of Central Florida has found a new way to control the speed of a light pulse. Not only does this method allow you to speed up or slow down the light pulse, it also allows you to reverse the sign of the speed value, i.e. makes the light move in the opposite direction. This achievement in the near future may lead to the emergence of new high-performance optical communication systems, "slow" light pulses can be used as a buffer data storage, which will prevent information loss.

Note that this is far from the first attempt to implement the technology for controlling the speed of light, but in almost all other similar technologies, various materials were used for this, having different refractive indices, light propagation speed and other optical characteristics. The new method is the first to slow down or speed up light in open space without using any material as a light guide.

In their experiments, scientists have shown that they can speed up a pulse to 30 times the normal speed of light, slow it down to half its original speed, and even send that pulse in the opposite direction. Such miracles with light allow them to create a device called a spatial optical modulator. Speaking in simple terms? Without going into physical and mathematical jungle, this modulator allows you to mix the spatial and temporal parameters of a light pulse in various proportions, which in turn allows you to control the speed of this pulse.

“Now we can control the speed of light by directly affecting the impulse itself and reorganizing the energy contained in it. The reorganization of the energy of the impulse manifests itself in mixing its spatial and temporal degrees of freedom,” the researchers write, “While all this is only the first step of extensive future research, the results which could lead to entirely new communications and other optical technologies."

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