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Researchers Create New Form Of Matter
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Space Doubt
User ID: 98484
5/22/2007 5:49 PM
Report abusive post | Researchers Create New Form Of Matter
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[link to www.spacemart.com]
Pittsburgh PA (SPX) May 22, 2007
Physicists at the University of Pittsburgh have demonstrated a new form of matter that melds the characteristics of lasers with those of the world's best electrical conductors. The work introduces a new method of moving energy from one point to another as well as a low-energy means of producing a light beam like that from a laser. The Pitt researchers and their collaborators at the Bell Labs of Alcatel-Lucent in New Jersey detail the process in the May 18 issue of the journal Science.
The new state is a solid filled with a collection of energy particles known as polaritons that have been trapped and slowed, explained lead investigator David Snoke, an associate professor in the physics and astronomy department in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences. Snoke worked with Pitt graduate students Ryan Balili and Vincent Hartwell on the project.
Using specially designed optical structures with nanometer-thick layers-which allow polaritons to move freely inside the solid - Snoke and his colleagues captured the polaritons in the form of a superfluid. In superfluids and in their solid counterparts, superconductors, matter consolidates to act as a single energy wave rather than as individual particles.
In superconductors, this allows for the perfect flow of electricity. In the new state of matter demonstrated at Pitt-which can be called a polariton superfluid-the wave behavior leads to a pure light beam similar to that from a laser but is much more energy efficient.
Traditional superfluids and superconductors require extremely low temperatures, approximately negative 280 and negative 450 degrees Fahrenheit for a superconductor and superfluid, respectively. The polariton superfluid is more stable at higher temperatures, and may be capable of being demonstrated at room temperature in the near future.
The Pitt research builds on current efforts in physics laboratories around the world to create materials, which mix the characteristics of superconductors and lasers. Snoke's work provides a new method to trap and manipulate the energy particles. Applied to technology, this technique could provide new ways of controlled transfer of optical signals through solid matter.
Snoke's polariton trap was devised with a technique similar to that used for superfluids made of atoms in a gaseous state known as the Bose-Einstein condensate. Three scientists shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics for producing the condensate. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 237799
5/22/2007 5:58 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
What the hell is a polariton? |
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Space Doubt
User ID: 98484 (OP)
5/22/2007 5:59 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
OMG! I got a thread pinned!
I...I...I don't know how to react...!!! |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 240365
5/22/2007 6:05 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
We're approaching the necessity of official disclosure
....................  |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 240365
5/22/2007 6:07 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
 <----it looks like this green stuff---> |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 98484 (OP)
5/22/2007 6:39 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
What the hell is a polariton? Quoting: Anonymous Coward 237799
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
Polaritonics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Figure 1: Polaritonics may resolve the incongruence between electronics, which suffers technological and physical barriers to increased speed, and photonics, which requires lossy integration of light source and guiding structures. Other quasiparticles/collective excitations such as magnon-polaritons and exciton-polaritons, their location identified above, may be exploitable in the same way that phonon-polaritons have been for polaritonics.
Figure 1: Polaritonics may resolve the incongruence between electronics, which suffers technological and physical barriers to increased speed, and photonics, which requires lossy integration of light source and guiding structures. Other quasiparticles/collective excitations such as magnon-polaritons and exciton-polaritons, their location identified above, may be exploitable in the same way that phonon-polaritons have been for polaritonics.
Polaritonics is an intermediate regime between photonics and sub-microwave electronics (see Fig. 1). In this regime, signals are carried by an admixture of electromagnetic and lattice vibrational waves known as phonon-polaritons, rather than currents or photons. Since phonon-polaritons propagate with frequencies in the range of hundreds of gigahertz to several terahertz, polaritonics bridges the gap between electronics and photonics. A compelling motivation for polaritonics is the demand for high speed signal processing and linear and nonlinear terahertz spectroscopy. Polaritonics has distinct advantages over electronics, photonics, and traditional terahertz spectroscopy in that it offers the potential for a fully integrated platform that supports terahertz wave generation, guidance, manipulation, and readout in a single patterned material.
Polaritonics, like electronics and photonics, requires three elements: robust waveform generation, detection, and guidance and control. Without all three, polaritonics would be reduced to just phonon-polaritons, just as electronics and photonics would be reduced to just electromagnetic radiation. These three elements can be combined to enable device functionality similar to that in electronics and photonics.
To illustrate the functionality of polaritonic devices, consider the hypothetical circuit in Fig. 2. The optical excitation pulses that generate phonon-polaritons, in the top left and bottom right of the crystal, enter normal to the crystal face (into the page). The resulting phonon-polaritons will travel laterally away from the excitation regions. Entrance into the waveguides is facilitated by reflective and focusing structures. Phonon-polaritons are guided through the circuit by terahertz waveguides carved into the crystal. Circuit functionality resides in the interferometer structure at the top and the coupled waveguide structure at the bottom of the circuit. The latter employs a photonic bandgap structure with a defect (yellow) that could provide bistability for the coupled waveguide.
Figure 2: Fanciful depiction of a polaritonic circuit illustrating fully integrated terahertz wave generation, guidance, manipulation, and readout in a single patterned material. Phonon-polaritons are generated in the upper left and lower right hand corners by focusing femtosecond optical excitation pulses into the crystal near waveguide entrances. Phonon-polaritons propagate laterally away from the excitation region and into the waveguides. Signal processing and circuit functionality is facilitated by resonant cavities, reflectors, focusing elements, coupled waveguides, splitters, combiners, interferometers, and photonic bandgap structures created by milling channels that fully extend throughout the thickness of the crystal.
Figure 2: Fanciful depiction of a polaritonic circuit illustrating fully integrated terahertz wave generation, guidance, manipulation, and readout in a single patterned material. Phonon-polaritons are generated in the upper left and lower right hand corners by focusing femtosecond optical excitation pulses into the crystal near waveguide entrances. Phonon-polaritons propagate laterally away from the excitation region and into the waveguides. Signal processing and circuit functionality is facilitated by resonant cavities, reflectors, focusing elements, coupled waveguides, splitters, combiners, interferometers, and photonic bandgap structures created by milling channels that fully extend throughout the thickness of the crystal.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Waveform generation
* 2 Signal detection
* 3 Guidance and control
o 3.1 Laser Micromachining
* 4 References
* 5 See also
* 6 External links
[edit] Waveform generation
Phonon-polaritons generated in ferroelectric crystals propagate nearly laterally to the excitation pulse due to the high dielectric constants of ferroelectric crystals, facilitating easy separation of phonon-polaritons from the excitation pulses that generated them. Phonon-polaritons are therefore available for direct observation, as well as coherent manipulation, as they move from the excitation region into other parts of the crystal. Lateral propagation is paramount to a polaritonic platform in which generation and propagation take place in a single crystal. A full treatment of the Cherenkov-like terahertz wave response reveals that in general, there is also a forward propagation component that must be considered in many cases.
[edit] Signal detection
Direct observation of phonon-polariton propagation was made possible by real-space imaging, in which the spatial and temporal profiles of phonon-polaritons are imaged onto a CCD camera using Talbot phase-to-amplitude conversion. This by itself was an extraordinary breakthrough. It was the first time that electromagnetic waves were imaged directly, appearing much like ripples in a pond when a rock plummets through the water's surface (see Fig. 3). Real-space imaging is the preferred detection technique in polaritonics, though other more conventional techniques like optical Kerr-gating, time resolved diffraction, interferometric probing, and terahertz field induced second harmonic generation are useful in some applications where real-space imaging is not easily employed. For example, patterned materials with feature sizes on the order of a few tens of micrometres cause parasitic scattering of the imaging light. Phonon-polariton detection is then only possible by focusing a more conventional probe, like those mentioned before, into an unblemished region of the crystal.
Figure 3: Frames from a phonon-polariton movie of broadband phonon-polariton generation and propagation in lithium niobate taken with real-space imaging. The first frame shows the initial phonon-polaritons at the time of generation. Immediately afterwards, wavepackets travel away from the excitation region in both directions. The second frame, taken 30 ps after generation, shows two phonon-polaritons traveling to the right. The first (left) is the reflection of the initial left-going wavepacket and the other was initially traveling to the right.
Figure 3: Frames from a phonon-polariton movie of broadband phonon-polariton generation and propagation in lithium niobate taken with real-space imaging. The first frame shows the initial phonon-polaritons at the time of generation. Immediately afterwards, wavepackets travel away from the excitation region in both directions. The second frame, taken 30 ps after generation, shows two phonon-polaritons traveling to the right. The first (left) is the reflection of the initial left-going wavepacket and the other was initially traveling to the right.
[edit] Guidance and control
The last element requisite to polaritonics is guidance and control. Complete lateral propagation parallel to the crystal plane is achieved by generating phonon-polaritons in crystals of thickness on the order of the phonon-polariton wavelength. This forces propagation to take place in one or more of the available slab waveguide modes. However, dispersion in these modes can be radically different from that in bulk propagation, and in order to exploit this, the dispersion must be understood.
Control and guidance of phonon-polariton propagation may also be achieved by guided wave, reflective, diffractive, and dispersive elements, as well as photonic and effective index crystals that can be integrated directly into the host crystal. However, lithium niobate, lithium tantalate, and other perovskites are impermeable to the standard techniques of material patterning. In fact, the only etchant known to be even marginally successful is hydrofluoric acid (HF), which etches slowly and predominantly in the direction of the crystal optic axis.
[edit] Laser Micromachining
Femtosecond laser micromachining is used for device fabrication by milling 'air' holes and/or troughs into ferroelectric crystals by directing them through the focus region of a femtosecond laser beam. This is the first demonstration of convenient, controllable, and rapid large scale damage induced in lithium niobate and lithium tantalate. The advantages of femtosecond laser micromachining for a wide range of materials have been well documented. In brief, free electrons are created within the beam focus through multiphoton excitation. Because the peak intensity of a femtosecond laser pulse is many orders of magnitude higher than that from longer pulse or continuous wave lasers, the electrons are rapidly accelerated and heated to form a plasma. The electrostatic instability, produced by the plasma, of the remaining lattice ions results in ejection of these ions and hence ablation of the material, leaving a material void in the laser focus region. Since multiphoton excited free electrons are always available at the beam focus, highly uniform and repeatable damage confined to the laser focus region results. Also, since the pulse duration and ablation time scales are much faster than the thermalization time, femtosecond laser micromachining does not suffer from the adverse effects of a heat-affected-zone, like cracking and melting in regions neighboring the intended damage region. |
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Unanimous Science
User ID: 240021
5/22/2007 7:57 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
What the hell is a polariton? Quoting: Anonymous Coward 237799
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
polaritons are are quasiparticles resulting from strong coupling of electromagnetic waves with an electric or magnetic dipole-carrying excitation. They are an expression of the common quantum phenomenon known as level repulsion, also known as the anti-crossing principle. Polaritons describe the crossing of the dispersion of light with any interacting resonance.
Thus, a polariton is the result of the mixing of a photon with an excitation of a material. The most discussed types of polaritons are phonon-polaritons, resulting from coupling of an infrared photon with an optic phonon; exciton-polaritons, resulting from coupling of visible light with an exciton; and surface plasmon-polaritons, resulting from coupling of surface plasmons with light (the wavelength depends on the substance).
Whenever the polariton picture is valid, the model of photons in crystals is insufficient. A major feature of polaritons is a strong dependency of the propagation speed of light through the crystal on the frequency. For exciton-polaritons, rich experimental results on various aspects have been gained in copper (I) oxide. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 205910
5/22/2007 8:29 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
so... what the hell does this mean? |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 236619
5/22/2007 8:34 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
I say we name the new form of matter "doesn't"
As in 'doesn't' matter |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 206312
5/22/2007 9:19 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
lol i love seeing all the confused posts...makes me feel so smart!!
-Quantum Mechanics, University of Oxford |
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I have all the mysteries
User ID: 233966
5/22/2007 9:29 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
I have a chaotic control of all physics
"I" here is defined somewhat loosely,
but still valid.
Right now, we are working on standardizing
the origination process (and writing the
owners' manual) so we can duplicate
the universe reliably.
"We" here is defined somewhat loosely,
but still valid. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 240091
5/22/2007 9:51 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
OMG! I got a thread pinned!
I...I...I don't know how to react...!!! Quoting: Space Doubt 98484
it's ok, it's just a copy and paste... |
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femto
User ID: 240613
5/22/2007 11:04 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
to a pure light beam similar to that from a laser Quoting: Space Doubt
Femto tech. Light speed x whatever times you want.
Love x |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 71999
5/22/2007 11:39 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
From here to there
...
Same place, same time? |
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Xare
User ID: 104256
5/22/2007 11:48 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
I say we name the new form of matter "doesn't"
As in 'doesn't' matter Quoting: Anonymous Coward 236619
Rename yourself that !
These kind of Advances DO MATTER.
Things are possible that are held back from the world because of an agenda and people like you allow it. |
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femto
User ID: 240613
5/23/2007 12:01 AM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
Same place, same time? Quoting: AC
To anything in light speed the vision is whatever the visionary wishes.ie: so fast the allusion of back/forward up/down simultaneously is complete.
love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Love x |
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femto
User ID: 240613
5/23/2007 12:17 AM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
To anything in light speed the vision is whatever the visionary wishes.ie: so fast the allusion of back/forward up/down simultaneously is complete. Quoting: Femto
For context, a femtosecond is to a second, what a second is to a hundred million years Quoting: Wikipedia
Love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Love x |
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floydian_slip
User ID: 1338
5/23/2007 12:27 AM
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For context, a femtosecond is to a second, what a second is to a hundred million years
Love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Quoting: femto
wow, i never knew what femto was.
nice to know
cool |
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femto
User ID: 240613
5/23/2007 1:31 AM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
Hi Floydian thinking is not the only way to travel .... .........lol
Lovexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Love x |
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JUST 4 the Record
User ID: 240783
5/23/2007 7:46 AM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
QUOTING THREAD TITLE
WRONG
Researchers ((Create)) New Form Of Matter
CORRECT
Researchers ASSEMBLE New Form Of Matter
You see these researchers did not Create anything, they simple rearranged matter and molecules, or energy forms, into new combinations..
ONLY GOD CREATES |
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femto
User ID: 240819
5/23/2007 9:29 AM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
Wow, JUST 4 the Record. So obvious when you say it.
Love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Love x |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 168725
5/23/2007 9:44 AM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
I made it. |
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anime eyes
User ID: 207220
5/23/2007 11:39 AM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
Headache inducing reading.
[link to www.newscientist.com]
From this, the researchers made another leap. Could the entire universe be modelled in a similar way? "Suddenly we realised, maybe the vacuum of our whole universe is a string-net liquid," says Wen. "It would provide a unified explanation of how both light and matter arise." So in their theory elementary particles are not the fundamental building blocks of matter. Instead, they emerge from the deeper structure of the non-empty vacuum of space-time.
 |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 134221
5/23/2007 1:18 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
i just created a new form of matter as well... out of my arse a few mins ago |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 220464
5/23/2007 1:22 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
I have a chaotic control of all physics
"I" here is defined somewhat loosely,
but still valid.
Right now, we are working on standardizing
the origination process (and writing the
owners' manual) so we can duplicate
the universe reliably.
"We" here is defined somewhat loosely,
but still valid. Quoting: I have all the mysteries 233966
 |
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deepend 
User ID: 162926
5/23/2007 1:48 PM
 | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
this is incredible, huge.
^^ gravity is a harsh reality. ^^ |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 81537
5/23/2007 2:02 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
zetas right again!
 |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 240309
5/23/2007 3:17 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
We just discovered the ape-man!
We went to the moon!!
Trust us, we care. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 240964
5/23/2007 4:53 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
Do you think this makes light/photons "alive"? I don't know how to explain what I'm talking about, but could a person include information in this beam of light?
Would this beam be green or mostly bluish?
thanks beforehand to anyone answering these obscure questions. |
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Solsearcher
User ID: 18027
5/24/2007 2:20 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
The secret science cabal (DARPA, etc.) have had the ability to engineer reality to their desires for many years now. Manufacturing as we know it is obsolete.
The problem the 'powers-that-be' (PTB) are now facing is how to get rid of 95% of the worlds population that are no longer needed for anything. We are considered 'useless eaters' who the elitists consider squatters on their planet and a potential threat, especially if the masses find out how the elite has been screwing them over for generations with contrived wars, depressions, disease, etc.
The spectacular technology the PTB has been keeping under wraps now for years will not be released until after population reduction is carried out. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 98484 (OP)
5/24/2007 4:08 PM | | Re: Researchers Create New Form Of Matter | Quote |
QUOTING THREAD TITLE
WRONG
Researchers ((Create)) New Form Of Matter
CORRECT
Researchers ASSEMBLE New Form Of Matter
You see these researchers did not Create anything, they simple rearranged matter and molecules, or energy forms, into new combinations..
ONLY GOD CREATES Quoting: JUST 4 the Record 240783
How do you know they didn't create it through god? |
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