Ultrafast laser pulses produces a previously unseen phase of matter

[ArcticDude]

Ultrafast laser pulses produces a previously unseen phase of matter

"Adding energy to any material, such as by heating it, almost always makes its structure less orderly. Ice, for example, with its crystalline structure, melts to become liquid water, with no order at all.

But in new experiments by physicists at MIT and elsewhere, the opposite happens: When a pattern called a charge density wave in a certain material is hit with a fast laser pulse, a whole new charge density wave is created—a highly ordered state, instead of the expected disorder. The surprising finding could help to reveal unseen properties in materials of all kinds."

More @ phys.org >>

 

[CDBEAM777]

Like Tears in the Rain, Our lofty achievements in understanding the Nature of the Universe....are washed away...every day !!

CDBEAM

 

[RedCowboy]

Sort of like, laser forging ?

 

[paul1598419]

This got me thinking about the race to find the Bose-Einstein condensate back in 2003. UC Boulder (University of Colorado) was part of that. I went to UC Denver, so I was routing for them, of course. It was interesting at the time to note they used lasers to help cool the Na gas used to get the condensate as the laser light was re-emitted at a lower wavelength, higher frequency, proportional to the amount of energy taken away from the Na atoms. This was done by carefully aligning the lasers to an angle greater than 90* and controlling their polarity, all while the gas was held in a magnetic vessel that was exactly negatively exerted against the gravity acting on the gas. Thanks for the memories!