Scientists have previously established that light can be slowed down in certain scenarios, and a new study demonstrates a method for achieving it that promises to be one of the most useful approaches yet.

The speed of light is often regarded as the ultimate cosmic speed limit, but researchers have now managed to slow it down dramatically—to just 61 kilometers per hour.

In 1998, scientists from the Rowland Institute for Science created a BEC by supercooling sodium atoms in a vacuum chamber. First they fired laser beams (moving at the usual speed of light) at the...

Feb 3, 2025 · Light, the fastest entity in the universe, has long been considered an unbreakable speed limit of nature. But what if we could slow it down—or even bring it to a complete halt?

In optics, slow light is the propagation of an optical pulse or other modulation of an optical carrier at a very low group velocity. Slow light occurs when a propagating pulse is substantially slowed by the interaction with the medium in which the propagation takes place.

Jan 29, 2024 · Various techniques have been developed over the years to slow down light, including electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), photonic crystals, and...

Mar 7, 2025 · The speed of light is often regarded as the ultimate cosmic speed limit, but researchers have now managed to slow it down dramatically—to just 61 kilometers per hour. This was achieved by using a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), a peculiar quantum state of matter that allows light to be slowed or even stopped entirely.

Jul 24, 2023 · Light slows down when it enters a medium, like glass. This is what is explained in this article. When the light leaves the glass medium and enters air (or, vacuum) it regains its original...

Nov 29, 2024 · To slow down light, scientists used a cloud of sodium atoms cooled down to form a Bose-Einstein condensate. They then directed laser pulses at this cloud. As the light interacted with the atoms of the condensate, it slowed down significantly, reaching a speed of just 17 meters per second, or about 61 kilometers per hour.

May 31, 2016 · Physicists have just found a way to slow light down without touching or intercepting it, simply by making it 'twist' as it moves through space. That means they were able to make beams of light take longer to get from point A to point B, a skill that will be incredibly useful when it comes to controlling the next-generation of optical computers ...