German physicists have discovered a previously unknown phase transition in the Bose-Einstein optical condensate and a new state of light quanta. The results may be important in the future to implement secure quantum communication.
In 2010 researchers at the University of Bonn under the direction of Professor Martin Weitz for the first time obtained a completely new light source: a single super photon consisting of many thousands of individual light particles. It was a kind of Bose-Einstein condensate of light particles.
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Bose-Einstein condensate is an extreme aggregate state of matter, which only occurs at temperatures close to absolute zero. This state is characterized by the fact that the particles of this system are no longer distinguishable and are in a quantum-mechanical state, that is, they behave like a giant superparticle.
In the new experiment, the scientists used the same facility as ten years ago. They captured the light particles in the resonator that consisted of two curved mirrors, located at a distance of just over a micrometer. The space between the mirrors was filled with a liquid dye solution that cooled the photons.
At some point, the researchers managed to capture the phase transition in the trapped light particle system. The authors explain this transition as follows: translucent mirrors cause the loss and replacement of photons creating an imbalance, leading to the system beginning to oscillate.
As a result, two distinct phases are formed: one of oscillation and one of attenuation. In the latter, the amplitude of the vibration gradually decreases.
“The ultra-attenuation phase that we observe corresponds to a new state of the light field,” says Fahri Emre Ozturk of the Institute for Applied Physics at the University of Bonn.
Scientists hope that in the future their discovery will be used in the field of quantum communication.
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“This can be interesting for transmitting quantum encrypted messages between multiple participants,” Ozturk notes.