Thursday, 28 May 2020

quantum mechanics - Slowing down light in an opaque crystal for a whole minute



I just read about a team of physicists at the University of Darmstadt, Germany, that managed to completely slow down a beam of light that traveled through an opaque crystal (article here).


How is it possible for a beam of light come to a complete stop? In the article they mentioned that they fired a laser at the crystal causing the atoms to go into a quantum superposition. How does this affect the stopping of the light? Also if the uncertainty principle applies to photons (which I do not know if it does), how does this not violate the uncertainty principle if the photons aren't moving?




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