Light, for some scientists, just moves too fast. They dream of using "slow light" to overcome limitations in everything from image processing to quantum computing. Now, two teams in the US have taken important steps towards these goals.
Light is good at carrying information in a digital system. The problem is storing that information: typically, digital devices do this by converting the light into electrical signals and then back into light again when it is needed, and this back-and-forth can degrade the quality of information. The solution could be slow light - light reined in to a fraction of its usual speed by exotic states of matter. The idea is to delay or even halt light, and extract information from it when required.
Now John Howell and his team at University of Rochester in New York have shown how delayed light can reliably transmit information. They encoded images digitally in ...
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