Solid light, often referred to in media as "hard light" or "hard-light", is a hypothetical material, made of light in a solidified state. It has been theorized that this could exist,[1][2] and experiments claim to have created solid photonic matter or molecules by inducing strong interaction between photons.[3][4][5] Potential applications of this could include logic gates for quantum computers[4] and room-temperature superconductor development.[3]

Experiments

In theory, photons, the particles that make up forms of electromagnetic radiation like light, may be attracted in a nonlinear medium.[6]

The MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms conducted experiments in the 2010s. Single photons were fired from weak lasers into a dense cloud of rubidium cooled to near absolute zero. The speed of light in the cloud was about 100,000 times slower than in a vacuum. Within the cloud, photons lost energy and gained mass. The conditions allowed photons to attract and bind to other photons, and exit the cloud as molecules. Reportedly, photon pairs were observed in 2013, and triplets in 2018.[4][5]

Fiction

Solid light appears in several video game franchises, including Halo, Portal, and Overwatch. In Portal 2 sunlight is used to create "hard light bridges", which act as solid semi-transparent walkways or barriers.[7] In Overwatch the fictional Vishkar Corporation uses solid light as a construction material.[7] In Halo solid light is the foundation of Forerunner weapons and many of their utilitarian devices like retractable bridges.

Solid holograms appear many times in Star Trek.[7][8] In "Red Dwarf", the character Rimmer is a hologram who obtains a "hard light drive", allowing him to become tangible.[7] In DC Comics' Green Lantern, the various Lantern Corps use solid light constructs.[7]

Solid light is the main superpower of the Marvel Superheroine Ms Marvel.

See also

References

  1. ↑ University of Melbourne (7 May 2007). "Could Light Behave As A Solid? A New Theory". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  2. ↑ Raftery, J.; Sadri, D.; Schmidt, S.; Türeci, H. E.; Houck, A. A. (8 September 2014). "Observation of a Dissipation-Induced Classical to Quantum Transition". Physical Review X. 4 (3): 031043. arXiv:1312.2963. Bibcode:2014PhRvX...4c1043R. doi:10.1103/physrevx.4.031043. ISSN 2160-3308.
  3. 1 2 Freeman, David (16 September 2014). "Scientists Say They've Created A Freaky New Form Of Light". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Reuell, Peter (27 September 2013). "Seeing light in a new way". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  5. 1 2 Chu, Jennifer (15 February 2018). "Physicists create new form of light". MIT News. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  6. ↑ Firstenberg, Ofer; Peyronel, Thibault; Liang, Qi-Yu; Gorshkov, Alexey V.; Lukin, Mikhail D.; Vuletić, Vladan (25 September 2013). "Attractive photons in a quantum nonlinear medium" (PDF). Nature. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 502 (7469): 71–75. Bibcode:2013Natur.502...71F. doi:10.1038/nature12512. hdl:1721.1/91605. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 24067613. S2CID 1699899.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Hard Light". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  8. ↑ "Meet the Man Behind the Holodeck, Part 1". 25 July 2023.
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