The Bose-Einstein Condensate, that special form of matter whose conjecture earned Satyendra Bose and Albert Einstein the Nobel Prize, has again been produced - this time with photons.
Researchers have managed to trap photons in a resonant cavity with dye molecules, which act to redistribute photon energy in a manner resembling the statistical mechanics of a gas - the famous Bose-Einstain statistics. As the 'photon gas' reached a minimum critical density, the Photonic Bose-Einstein Condensate was produced, resulting in a laser.
This could end up becoming an entirely new alternative way to produce lasers. Consequently, new laser applications like high-energy lasers may be enabled, which were previously too difficult.
3 comments:
very interesting experiment, san. not clear why this is 'hard to think of, but easy to do' as an experiment.
also, i don't believe bose got a nobel prize for this (or anything else). not even for the bosons that are named after him. he had the singular misfortune to have brown skin.
Yep. Eintein got Nobel for Photoelectric effect, not for Bose Einstein statistics. It is funny that it is even called Bose-Einstein statistics. Bose sent his paper to Einstein and Einstein read, approved and helped it to publish. Really, not much contribution in this regard from Einstein (he was a great scientist and he definitely has made monumental contributions, just not in this one). But alas, brown skinned 'damned coolie' from British empire can hardly be expected to get recognition. It is a miracle CV Raman got Nobel.
@Nizhal Yoddha
From Wikipedia: "Although more than one Nobel Prize was awarded for research related to the concepts of the boson, Bose–Einstein statistics and Bose–Einstein condensate—the latest being the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was given for advancing the theory of Bose–Einstein condensates—Bose himself was not awarded the Nobel Prize."
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