I mentioned earlier this very cool experiment by Lene Hau and her group where she stored the light in one gas, and then retrieve it later in another gas. Nature has a video podcast with an interview with Hau. She explains how this is done, and why it is and exciting and important work.
So take a look at it if you haven't discovered it already.
Zz.
What form does the information take? Morse code? Since sodium is the base for the condensate would frequencies other than sodium emission work, thus enabling a multi base versus a binary morse code type transission vehicle?
ReplyDeleteOh no, it isn't that sophisticated yet.
ReplyDeleteYou need to keep in mind that the medium "holds" the light in terms of its energy and phase information. As it is now, the medium is "tuned" to hold that particular frequency of light. A typical EM signal that you get from, let's say, radio signal contains a fourier sum of various frequencies. So as of yet, this technique is still in its infancy.
Zz.