Researchers condense entire image into single photon

Original post: click here

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highly Ranked

Foof @ Jan 21st 2007 6:48AM

Part of it is getting hung up on the "single photon" terminology, which makes you think of light as existing solely as a particle. First of all, photons aren't atoms (!= proton), they're subatomic. More importantly for this application, light has this really weird physics property of existing as (or exhibiting properties of) both a particle and a wave. So perhaps a better analogy/simplification than "imprinting data onto an atom" would be something like "storing information in the diffraction patterns of a wave." By knowing how waves act, you can analyze such patterns and movements and "play the wave backwards" to determine the original shape (stencil) that formed it.

Neutral

Andy @ Jan 21st 2007 12:29PM

particle/wave duality is a property of all fundamental particles, not just photons. Matter particles (electrons and quarks) also have this property.

Add your comments

New Users

Name

E-mail

Current Users

E-mail:

Password

Remember Me

E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment

replying to thread #3191782

Add your comments:

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

Please note that gratuitous links to your site are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. And yes, comments are moderated.