To create a material that allows light to move with infinite velocity

Researchers from Harvard University announced the creation of a method for controlling light on the nanoscale, which may lead to the creation of photonic telecommunications (rather than modern electronic). As reported, the research team developed a metamaterial of the silicon pillars, enclosed in a polymer and wrapped in a gold foil, which reduces the refractive index of zero. Speaking Russian, it means that the light wave can pass the material at a rate that tends to infinity, without violating the known laws of physics.

How can this be? Light passing through the metamaterial, it is moving at a speed of 299,792,458 meters per second, being the fastest thing in the universe. Nevertheless, the speed of light can also be measured its wave velocity - the speed with which a light wave peaks move. The speed of light wave shows how it is stretched (or compressed), the motion of light through the material. For example, if you miss a ray of light through the water, a bit of light wave "shrinks" because of the fact that the fluid density greater than the density of Earth's atmosphere. Conversely, if you shine a flashlight at the bottom of the pool, its wavelength is stretched as soon as the light reaches the surface. In the above case, the refractive index is 1.3.

Now that we have a material with a refractive index of zero, begin to happen strange things. When light passes through a material, its wave is infinitely stretched, creating a straight line, where the oscillations occur during periods of time, not space. This "straightening" of the wave of light makes it easy to control the light without loss of energy. The industrial potential of the discovery - from telecommunications to quantum computers - virtually endless.

"In quantum optics, we can make the quantum emitters to produce photons that are always in one phase, - says Philip Munoz, one of the study's authors. - The use of our material will also help control the confusion between quantum particles as the light waves will be distributed as efficiently as possible. "

Nevertheless, it is not known when this revolutionary technology will leave the walls of the laboratory and begin to be used in practice.

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