Light – the seemingly inaccessible thing, why is it in liquid form, like water?
The property of liquids is to be able to flow around the object, filling all the voids. As for light, it is a waveform (sometimes acting like an atom), traveling in a straight line, and then being blocked when it encounters an obstacle.
Light can’t bend on its own, that’s why you can’t see the sides and back of an object, nor the corners of the roads. This is also the most basic difference between light and water.
The “liquid light” they created is a superfluid – with no friction and no viscosity.
However, under some extreme conditions, light can behave like water, allowing it to bend itself to “flow” around the object. It is called “liquid light”.
The “liquid light” they produce is a superfluid , which has no friction or viscosity, and is a form of matter in the “Bose-Einstein Condensate” state, experts say. BEC).
The problem arises in that BEC (which is considered the fifth state of matter) is where the laws of ordinary physics translate into quantum physics. And it only appears when the temperature is close to “absolute zero” (0 degrees K or -273 degrees C), or in other words, extremely difficult.
Recently, however, researchers have found a way to return matter to the BEC state at room temperature. In other words, for the first time in history “liquid light” can exist so easily.
By combining light and matter , they have officially created “liquid light” under normal conditions.
Specifically, the study was conducted by experts from CNR NANOTEC Nanotechnology Institute (Italy). By combining light and matter , they have officially created “liquid light” under normal conditions.
“Most important of this work, we have demonstrated that superfluids can exist at room temperature, using particles of light called photons ,” said Daniele Sanvitto.
However, creating photonic particles is not simple, requiring many tools operating at the nanoscale. Sanvitto had to “clamp” a layer of organic molecules 130nm thick between two super-reflective mirrors, and then fire a powerful laser at them.
“We were able to combine the properties of photons – such as mass and speed – with the strong interactions with electrons in common molecules,” said Stéphane Kéna-Cohen of the team.
Difference between liquid (top) and superfluid (bottom). Liquids when impeded will form waves, while superfluids do not.
According to experts, this discovery paved the way for further quantum-hydraulic studies. And not only that, photonic particles will be like the factors that make future technology evolve, especially in areas related to light such as LEDs, solar cells, or lasers.
The study was published in the journal Nature Physics.