Physicists create new form of light

Newly observed optical state could enable quantum computing with photons

Date:: February 15, 2018
Source:: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Summary:: Physicists have created a new form of light that could enable quantum computing with photons.; Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT

Try a quick experiment: Take two flashlights into a dark room and shine them so that their light beams cross. Notice anything peculiar? The rather anticlimactic answer is, probably not. That's because the individual photons that make up light do not interact. Instead, they simply pass each other by, like indifferent spirits in the night.

But what if light particles could be made to interact, attracting and repelling each other like atoms in ordinary matter? One tantalizing, albeit sci-fi possibility: light sabers -- beams of light that can pull and push on each other, making for dazzling, epic confrontations. Or, in a more likely scenario, two beams of light could meet and merge into one single, luminous stream./.../