awesome. Wonder what kind of real-use power consumption were looking at.. Thanks for the article.

 

If they trapped light inside a crystel, does that mean they have stored useable energy inside a crystal?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aparition

If they trapped light inside a crystel, does that mean they have stored useable energy inside a crystal?

It might not be a good medium for energy storage.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aparition

If they trapped light inside a crystel, does that mean they have stored useable energy inside a crystal?

Yes, and I wonder why they couldn't find a way to convert to electricity from the stored phase, giving this infinitely more uses in todays world, meaning better funding.

 

So they trapped light inside an opaque crystal? How is this different then turning a light on in a room with no windows and saying "I trapped light in a room".

I mean, how can you read the inside of an opaque crystal? How can you "see" past the outside to know there is still light in there? Wouldn't light leave just as fast as you turning off the control laser? I mean obviously you can't get more light in once the control is off..

Looks like they are't really stopping it, just slowing it to the point of it taking a minute to leave the crystal. That is pretty sweet.

Slo-mo for real.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rickles

So they trapped light inside an opaque crystal? How is this different then turning a light on in a room with no windows and saying "I trapped light a room".

I mean, how can you read the inside of an opaque crystal? How can you "see" past the outside to know there is still light in there? Wouldn't light leave just as fast as you turning off the control laser?

Because walls absorb photons. The light isn't being stored, it's being transferred and absorbed (in the scenario of light in a room)

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rickles

So they trapped light inside an opaque crystal? How is this different then turning a light on in a room with no windows and saying "I trapped light a room".

... No comment

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aparition

If they trapped light inside a crystel, does that mean they have stored useable energy inside a crystal?

you just went full ******. never go full ******

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by poizone

Yes, and I wonder why they couldn't find a way to convert to electricity from the stored phase, giving this infinitely more uses in todays world, meaning better funding.

No. The light here is just not energy dense. Plus the light-to-electricity conversion rate is less than 50%.

It's like we saying.... "I trapped lukewarm in a bottle and contain maintain it's temperature. We should focus on energy storage technology on this!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rickles

So they trapped light inside an opaque crystal? How is this different then turning a light on in a room with no windows and saying "I trapped light in a room".

I mean, how can you read the inside of an opaque crystal? How can you "see" past the outside to know there is still light in there? Wouldn't light leave just as fast as you turning off the control laser? I mean obviously you can't get more light in once the control is off..

Looks like they are't really stopping it, just slowing it to the point of it taking a minute to leave the crystal. That is pretty sweet.

Slo-mo for real.

Information. They can recovery the state of the light. In a room or laser off.... there is no light so you do not know what the prior state of light is.

It would be like moving electricity through wires and then storing them in the wires. Your arguement would be saying just turn off the electricity and it's the same thing! However, it's not.... what do we call storing the state of electricity in wires? RAM!

Note, another research group has "frozen" light before... it was 2-4 years ago.

 

this was a cool article.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rickles

So they trapped light inside an opaque crystal? How is this different then turning a light on in a room with no windows and saying "I trapped light in a room".

I mean, how can you read the inside of an opaque crystal? How can you "see" past the outside to know there is still light in there? Wouldn't light leave just as fast as you turning off the control laser? I mean obviously you can't get more light in once the control is off..

Looks like they are't really stopping it, just slowing it to the point of it taking a minute to leave the crystal. That is pretty sweet.

Slo-mo for real.

Its Called Science... derp~ They arnt saying its stored. They are PROVING its stored. Welcome to the 21st century.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by triarii3

you just went full ******. never go full ******

LOL ...awww

I was just wondering because I think just recently Solar Cells have been designed to hold energy for longer durations. If we had cheap crystals that could further capture and hold energy from captured light that might have been another way to increase Solar longevity from 1 day of charging.
But from other comments and reading more about it, it doesn't seem that these crystals could do that.

Personally I think our methods of holding energy are what are keeping progress back. I'm looking forward to the day we have hand sized objects that store enough energy to power a computer for a month.

 

Yea man, I saw MIB.. the galaxy is on Orion's belt. Gotcha.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aparition

LOL ...awww

I was just wondering because I think just recently Solar Cells have been designed to hold energy for longer durations. If we had cheap crystals that could further capture and hold energy from captured light that might have been another way to increase Solar longevity from 1 day of charging.
But from other comments and reading more about it, it doesn't seem that these crystals could do that.

Personally I think our methods of holding energy are what are keeping progress back. I'm looking forward to the day we have hand sized objects that store enough energy to power a computer for a month.

Think of the physics..... energy densities. How much power did you want to put into the palm of your hand?

If we are talking about current non-mobile computers....
50w average computer * 24 hr * 30 days = 36kW*h... or 130 Megajoules.

 

I like how computer magic now is just very small switches and wires but in the future

it's real magic

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckieHo

Think of the physics..... energy densities. How much power did you want to put into the palm of your hand?

If we are talking about current non-mobile computers....
50w average computer * 24 hr * 30 days = 36kW*h... or 130 Megajoules.

Imagine that crystal in your back pocket when you sit on it.. and it accidentally cracks.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckieHo

Think of the physics..... energy densities. How much power did you want to put into the palm of your hand?

If we are talking about current non-mobile computers....
50w average computer * 24 hr * 30 days = 36kW*h... or 130 Megajoules.

Hey someone has to lead the way.

Actually I was thinking more of mobile solutions. Also if the structure of the crystal was more in line with a perfect diamond or maybe graphene it might be perfectly safe to hold 130 Megajoules in your hand.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aparition

Hey someone has to lead the way.

Actually I was thinking more of mobile solutions. Also if the structure of the crystal was more in line with a perfect diamond or maybe graphene it might be perfectly safe to hold 130 Megajoules in your hand.

Really? You think our governments would ever let you hold something that has such destructive potential?

No...we're lucky they let us board planes with our laptop batteries...

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckieHo

How much power did you want to put into the palm of your hand?

ALL OF IT.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aparition

If they trapped light inside a crystel, does that mean they have stored useable energy inside a crystal?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckieHo

No. The light here is just not energy dense. Plus the light-to-electricity conversion rate is less than 50%.

It's like we saying.... "I trapped lukewarm in a bottle and contain maintain it's temperature. We should focus on energy storage technology on this!"
Information. They can recovery the state of the light. In a room or laser off.... there is no light so you do not know what the prior state of light is.

It would be like moving electricity through wires and then storing them in the wires. Your arguement would be saying just turn off the electricity and it's the same thing! However, it's not.... what do we call storing the state of electricity in wires? RAM!

Note, another research group has "frozen" light before... it was 2-4 years ago.

As far as I know, we are not conserving the state of electricity in "wire" as you said. The 1s and 0s are the "on" and "off" which mean the presence of an electron or not, not the quantum state of the electron (if its spin is up or down).

In this case the quantum state of the proton was preserved because as it was released from the crystal, it still had its initial quantum state (not the one of a photon being absorbed by an electron and emitted with the characteristic spectrum of the atom) like a perfect mirror would.

They probably simply found the way to make a crystal with an near-infinite refractive index causing the same thing you see on hot day when you drive you can see what it appears to be water on road. It's just the light being reflected by the tarmac but on this case the light is reflected whatever the angle it comes from. Same phenomenon with water being reflected on water on sunny days (that's why you risk more to have sunburn if you are on the water).

 

I really don't think the crystal "traps" or "holds" the light. It's more like it has been slowed to a creep. I figure maybe somebody has pointed this out already, but not in terms I can understand.

I just know that crystals are capable of slowing light significantly. As in how light slows to about half it's speed when passing through a diamond.

Layman's terms.

 

Soooo.... This incoming?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by un-midas touch

ALL OF IT.

Spoken like a true Sith Lord

 

Crystals. Hmmm.