New technique could find uses in highly sensitive
interferometers and other measuring devices
Light traveling in a vacuum is the Universe’s ultimate speed
demon, racing along at approximately 300,000 kilometers per second. Now
scientists have found an effective new way to put a speed bump in light’s path.
Reported today in The Optical Society’s (OSA) open-access journal Optics
Express, researchers from France and China embedded dye molecules in a liquid
crystal matrix to throttle the group velocity of light back to less than one
billionth of its top speed. The team
says the ability to slow light in this manner may one day lead to new
technologies in remote sensing and measurement science.