Light Pulse at 30 Times the Speed of Light

<a href=”https://today.ucf.edu/ucf-researchers-develop-way-control-speed-light-send-backward/”>University of Central Florida researchers Abouraddy and study co-author Esat Kondakci demonstrated</a> they could speed a pulse of light up to 30 times the speed of light, slow it down to half the speed of light, and also make the pulse travel backward.

They used a special device known as a spatial light modulator to mix the space and time properties of light, thereby allowing them to control the velocity of the pulse of light. The mixing of the two properties was key to the technique’s success.

“We’re able to control the speed of the pulse by going into the pulse itself and reorganizing its energy such that its space and time degrees of freedom are mixed in with each other,” Abouraddy said.

Nature Communications – Optical space-time wave packets having arbitrary group velocities in free space

Abstract-Controlling Light Pulses

Controlling the group velocity of an optical pulse typically requires traversing a material or structure whose dispersion is judiciously crafted. Alternatively, the group velocity can be modified in free space by spatially structuring the beam profile, but the realizable deviation from the speed of light in vacuum is small. Here we demonstrate precise and versatile control over the group velocity of a propagation-invariant optical wave packet in free space through sculpting its spatio-temporal spectrum. By jointly modulating the spatial and temporal degrees of freedom, arbitrary group velocities are unambiguously observed in free space above or below the speed of light in vacuum, whether in the forward direction propagating away from the source or even traveling backwards towards it.

They synthesize space-time (ST) wave packets using a phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) that efficiently sculpts the field spatio-temporal spectrum and modifies the group velocity. 

The ST wave packets are synthesized for simplicity in the form of a light sheet that extends uniformly in one transverse dimension over ~25 mm, such that control over vg is exercised in a macroscopic volume of space. They measure vg in an interferometric arrangement utilizing a reference pulsed plane wave and confirm precise control over vg from 30c in the forward direction to −4c in the backward direction. They observe group delays of ~±30 picoseconds (three orders-of-magnitude larger than those in references.), which is an order-of-magnitude longer than the pulse width, and is observed over a distance of only ~10 mm. Adding to the uniqueness of their approach, the achievable group velocity is independent of the beam size and of the pulse width. All that is needed to change the group velocity is a reorganization of the spectral correlations underlying the wave packet spatio-temporal structure. The novelty of our approach is its reliance on a linear system that utilizes a phase-only spatio-temporal Fourier synthesis strategy, which is energy efficient and precisely controllable. Their approach allows for endowing the field with arbitrary, programmable spatio-temporal spectral correlations that can be tuned to produce—smoothly and continuously—any desired wave packet group velocity. The versatility and precision of this technique with respect to previous approaches is attested by the unprecedented range of control over the measured group velocity values over the subluminal, superluminal, and negative regimes in a single optical configuration. Crucially, while distinct theoretical proposals have been made previously for each range of the group velocity (e.g., subluminal, superluminal, and negative spans), our strategy is—to the best of their knowledge—the only experimental arrangement capable of controlling the group velocity continuously across all these regimes (with no moving parts) simply through the electronic implementation of a phase pattern imparted to a spectrally spread wave front impinging on a SLM.

SOURCES- University of Central Florida, Nature Communications

Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com

12 thoughts on “Light Pulse at 30 Times the Speed of Light”

  1. Right. Like with a giant pair of scissors, you can see where the two blades come together and designate that as a point. If the scissors are long enough then, when you begin closing them, even without any part of the blades ever exceeding the speed of light, that point could move faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. Aside from the problem of how to make scissors that long, the problem is that you’ve proven nothing. The point is an imaginary one, a designation by definition. Since it is not real, of course it can move faster than the speed of light. You still can’t send an FTL message with it.

  2. That’s the thing about fundamental research, you can never tell if or when it will come to your home. But a lot of it does at some point.

  3. it’s not a good analogy but think of it like a laser pointer being swept at some angular speed. At some distance out the ”dot” moves faster than the speed of light across the surface it hits. Does this allow faster than light communication across the surface it sweeps? No of course not. Are individual photons moving faster than light? Nope.

    what’s moving faster than light here is the group velocity.

  4. if it takes 6 minutes to send a light signal to mars…. then that means with 30x speedup it now takes 0.20 seconds…

  5. However, it should be possible to stage a decent scam based on this.
    One could probably trick a huge amount of investment capital out of scrupulous stock brokers under pretense of building an ftl communication link. The buy/sell orders will arrive ahead of time making possible micro transactions that will make everyone rich. The article referred in the link above contains enough magic to make anyone dizzy.

  6. Group velocity of EM waves has been known to be capable of exceeding the speed of light for quite some time.

    It doesn’t allow FTL communication either.

  7. When can I expect this discovery to show up in a home appliance? Will I be able to send messages to myself in the future?

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