Physics
Supersolids are strange materials that behave like both a solid and a fluid due to quantum effects – and now researchers have created an intriguing new type of supersolid from laser light
Light has been made into a strange material called a supersolid
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An odd solid that can flow like a fluid has been created from light for the first time. Studying it will help researchers better understand exotic quantum states of matter.
“We actually made light into a solid. That’s pretty awesome,” says Dimitris Trypogeorgos at the National Research Council (CNR) in Italy. He notes Daniele Sanvitto, also at CNR, showed how light could become a fluid more than a decade ago. Now Trypogeorgos, Sanvitto and their colleagues have used light to make not just any solid, but…