Physicists Discover Important Step For Making Light Crystals

Calculations suggest that it’s possible to compress the atoms in an optical lattice until the heat is squeezed out of them -- and into a surrounding pool of ultra-cold Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), which will absorb the heat and evaporate it away. (Credit: Still image from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency animation)

What they’ve discovered could eventually aid high-temperature superconductivity, as well as the development of new high-tech materials.

In 2008, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) chose three multi-university teams to tackle an ambitious problem: trap atoms inside a light crystal -- also called an “optical lattice” -- that can simulate exotic materials and answer fundamental questions in physics.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2009) — Ohio State University researchers have developed a new strategy to overcome one of the major obstacles to a grand challenge in physics.