About two years ago, I was speculating about the never ending but rapidly progressing process of humanity gaining control (mastery) of information, light, energy, magnetism, and matter. (ILEMM control) I would also add another L for life referring to synthetic life, genomic, protenomics, epigenomics and control of stem cells and other cells. So ILLEMM control. Although life could be considered a mix of information, matter and energy. I believe that the advance in knowledge and the way that these gains are interacting is profound. It is the accelerating technology discussed by Kurzweil. However, I think it is possible to make projections as to where this progress will lead in a more detailed way.
I believe that superconductors and progress to room temperature superconductors is moving faster than I had believed. Having whole new families of superconducting material edges and having the tools to analyze effects at the nanoscale in size and at smaller slices of time [more powerful femtosecond lasers and optical clocks with accuracy to 10**-16 and 10*-17 seconds.. More on the improving accuracy of clocks.]
The improving tools for analysis and the increasing number of examples to be studied appears to be leading to an actual understanding of the true nature of the superconducting effect. There has also been the uncovering of an entirely new effect "superinsulation" which is the opposite of superconductance
There has been the resist confirmation and physical realization of a new basic circuit element, the memristor. This new element is added to the other three the resistor, capacitor and inductor as the fourth fundamental circuit element.
New states of matter are being discovered as frequently as when the periodic table of chemicals was being expanded a few decades ago.
Radically new things are being done with sound to create hypersound and acoustic lasers.
I will be adding other highlights major highlights to this article.
FURTHER READING
Peizoresistance effect that is ten times larger than in the past at room temperature for better motion detectors.
May 09, 2008
Tracking progress to controlling light, life and matter
May 07, 2008
New Laser increases sensitivity of Earthlike planet search up to 100 times
Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated an ultrafast laser that offers a record combination of high speed, short pulses and high average power. [about 100 times faster and more powerful] The same NIST group also has shown that this type of laser, when used as a frequency comb—an ultraprecise technique for measuring different colors of light—could boost the sensitivity of astronomical tools searching for other Earthlike planets as much as 100 fold.
Among its applications, the new laser can be used in searches for planets orbiting distant stars. Other possible applications of the new laser include remote sensing of gases for medical or atmospheric studies, and on-the-fly precision control of high-speed optical communications to provide greater versatility in data and time transmissions.
Astronomers look for slight variations in the colors of starlight over time as clues to the presence of a planet orbiting the star. The variations are due to the small wobbles induced in the star’s motion as the orbiting planet tugs it back and forth, producing minute shifts in the apparent color (frequency) of the starlight. Currently, astronomers’ instruments are calibrated with frequency standards that are limited in spectral coverage and stability. Frequency combs could be more accurate calibration tools, helping to pinpoint even smaller variations in starlight caused by tiny Earthlike planets. Such small planets would cause color shifts equivalent to a star wobble of just a few centimeters per second. Current instruments can detect, at best, a wobble of about 1 meter per second.
Standard frequency combs have “teeth” that are too finely spaced for astronomical instruments to read. The faster laser is one approach to solving this problem. In a separate paper,** the NIST group and astronomer Steve Osterman at the University of Colorado at Boulder describe how, by bouncing the light between sets of mirrors a particular distance apart, they can eliminate periodic blocks of teeth to create a gap-toothed comb. This leaves only every 10th or 20th tooth, making an ideal ruler for astronomy.
Both approaches have advantages for astronomical planet finding and related applications. The dime-sized laser is very simple in construction and produces powerful and extremely well-defined comb teeth. On the other hand, the filtering approach can cover a broader range of wavelengths. Four or five filtering cavities in parallel would provide a high-precision comb of about 25,000 evenly spaced teeth that spans the visible to near-infrared wavelengths (400 to 1100 nanometers), NIST physicist Scott Diddams says.
Osterman says he is pursuing the possibility of testing such a frequency comb at a ground-based telescope or launching a comb on a satellite or other space mission.
February 01, 2008
Femtosecond laser can change any metal to any color
Using a tabletop femtosecond laser powered from a regular wall electrical outlet, University of Rochester optical scientists can change any metal to have any color. Picture is Guo in lab at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester (photo credit Richard Baker, University of Rochester). This technique will also be adaptable to future rapid manufacturing and rapid prototyping.
Chunlei Guo, the researcher who a year ago used intense laser light to alter the properties of a variety of metals to render them pitch black, has pushed the same process further in a paper in today's Applied Physics Letters. He now believes it's possible to alter the properties of any metal to turn it any color—even multi-colored iridescence like a butterfly's wings.
Gold Aluminum, Blue Titanium, Gold Platinum (photo credit Richard Baker, University of Rochester)
Guo and his assistant, Anatoliy Vorobeyv, use an incredibly brief but incredibly intense laser burst that changes the surface of a metal, forming nanoscale and microscale structures that selectively reflect a certain color to give the appearance of a specific color or combinations of colors.
Guo's black metal, with its very high absorption properties, is ideal for any application where capturing light is desirable. The potential applications range from making better solar energy collectors, to more advanced stealth technology, he says. The ultra-brief/ultra-intense light Guo uses is produced by a femtosecond laser, which produces pulses lasting only a few quadrillionths of a second. A femtosecond is to a second what a second is to about 32 million years. During its brief burst, Guo's laser unleashes as much power as the entire electric grid of North America does, all focused onto a spot the size of a needlepoint.
The intense blast forces the surface of the metal to form nanostructures—pits, globules, and strands that response incoming light in different ways depending on the way the laser pulse sculpted the structures. Since the structures are smaller than the wavelength of light, the way they reflect light is highly dependent upon their specific size and shape, says Guo. Varying the laser intensity, pulse length, and number of pulses, allows Guo to control the configuration of the nanostructures, and hence control what color the metal reflects.
To alter an area of metal the size of a dime currently takes 30 minutes or more, but the researchers are working on refining the technique. Fortunately, despite the incredible intensity involved, the femtosecond laser can be powered by a simple wall outlet, meaning that when the process is refined, implementing it should be relatively simple.
November 16, 2007
New method to manipulate light a million times more efficiently
The team, led by Dr Fetah Benabid, reports on the discovery, which relates to the emerging attotechnology, the ability to send out pulses of light that last only an attosecond, a billion billionth of a second.
It is 1000 times shorter than a femtosecond. Short pulse lasers are a very interesting and emerging tool for science and technology They can destroy viruses and bacteria. They can vaporize matter without heat and be used for precise micromachining
These pulses are so brief that they allow researchers to more accurately measure the movement of sub-atomic particles such as the electron, the tiny negatively-charged entity which moves outside the nucleus of an atom. Attosecond technology may throw light, literally, upon the strange quantum world where such particles have no definite position,only probable locations.
To make attosecond pulses, researchers create a broad spectrum of light from visible wavelengths to x-rays through an inert gas. This normally requires a gigawatt of power, which puts the technique beyond any commercial or industrial use.
Dr Benabid’s team used a photonic crystal fibre (pcf), the width of a human hair, which traps light and the gas together in an efficient way. Until now the spectrum produced by photonic crystal fibre has been too narrow for use in attosecond technology, but the team have now produced a broad spectrum, using what is called a Kagomé lattice, using about a millionth of the power used by non-pcf methods.
Tthe team makes use of the fact that light can exist in different ‘modes’ without strongly interacting. This creates a situation whereby light can be trapped inside the fibre core without the need of photonic bandgap. Physicists call these modes bound states within a continuum.
October 01, 2007
Using Terahertz Radiation to Control Material Properties
Ultrafast pulses of terahertz radiation has been used to change a manganite crystal from an electrical insulator into a conductor
This work is using terahertz radiation to change the properties of a solid crystal material by 100,000 times at super high speeds. It is better and more useful than ancient dreams of alchemy.
The ability to induce dramatic phase-changes in solid materials through select vibrations holds great promise for future exploitation of prized technological phenomena such as superconductivity and magnetoresistance. The methods present a new way of studying electron correlation effects and the coupling between crystal structure and the conduction properties of strongly correlated electrons.
Rini, working under Schoenlein and with a group of collaborators that included Ra’anan Tobey, Nicky Dean, Jiro Itatani, Yasuhide Tomioka, Yoshinori Tokura and Andrea Cavalleri, flashed single crystals of the strongly correlated manganite with femtosecond pulses of terahertz (trillion-cycles-per-second) radiation. Terahertz (abbreviated THz) radiation is the frequency of molecular vibrations; the femtosecond (millionths of a billionth of a second) timescale is the measure of atoms in motion.
Rini, Schoenlein and their colleagues found that a frequency of about 17 THz set off vibrations in the manganite crystal which resulted in a stretching of the electronic bonds that connect its principal constituent atoms - manganese and oxygen. This mild distortion of the crystal’s geometry caused a profound change in its electronic properties.
“By selectively exciting an individual vibrational mode of the insulating manganite, we increased the crystal’s electrical conductivity by five orders of magnitude,” said Rini. “What we observed was that the excitation of the manganese-oxide molecule’s vibrational mode promptly induced an ultrafast transition of the molecule to a metallic phase.”
This marks the first experimental demonstration that the selective excitation of a single vibrational mode can be used to induce phase changes in a crystal. It also demonstrates that the dynamics of a phase change in a solid can be observed when the solid resides in the electronic ground state - the electronic state in which most chemical reactions and phase transitions take place.
In the future, Rini said the Schoenlein group would like to use longer wavelength radiation to selectively excite other vibrational modes, and femtosecond x-ray beams to explore other aspects of vibrationally induced phase transitions. For now, their experimental technique is already shedding new light on the physics behind CMR, which should prove valuable for the future use of this phenomenon in magnetic data storage devices. The technique might also be used to address the unresolved physics behind the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity – copper-oxide (cuprate) materials that lose all electrical resistance at temperatures much higher than conventional superconductors.
“The complex and remarkable behavior of strongly correlated electron systems poses among the most intriguing questions in condensed matter physics,” said Rini. “Our vibrational excitation approach enables time-resolved measurements under the unique conditions created by the localization of energy in specific vibrational modes, and helps elucidate the coupling between particular vibrations and related electronic and magnetic properties. We believe our technique will find extensive application in other complex solids.”
September 20, 2007
Lasers for purifying blood and detecting cancer
Businessweek indicates that new short pulse lasers can also shatter the outer membranes of viruses, which suggests they can be used to purify donated blood. A father-son team of scientists--one a laser expert at the University of Arizona, and the other an immunology student at Johns Hopkins University--built one that emits pulses of light at a frequency that kills viruses without harming normal cells.
Another new laser device could let doctors peer through the skin and into the veins of patients' wrists to spot cancer cells in the blood.
September 19, 2007
Femtoseconds changes in reflexivity useful for optical switching
The change in reflectivity this large---more than 100%-has never been achieved before in a photonic material; photo-induced changes are usually more like a few percent. The laser pulse required doesn’t even have to be particularly intense to cause the change.It could also be useful for faster optical computing.
Thus gigantic photo-response work began as a Tokyo-Kyoto collaboration but now includes also LBL and Oxford. The new advance is that the change in reflectivity can be brought about in tens of femtoseconds rather than 150 ns. The dramatic reflectivity changes will be useful in bringing about direct ultrafast optical-to-optical switching.
