Supersolid and Quantum theatre

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Why in News?

A team of researchers from Italy, recently froze light into a ‘supersolid’ using ‘quantum theatre.’

Supersolid - A super solid is an exotic phase of matter in which particles are arranged in a crystalline structure but also move like a non-viscous fluid, exhibiting properties of both a solid and a superfluid.
First created in - 2017 in a laboratory, but Physicists predicted the idea of a super solid in the 1960s.
It combines the friction-free flow of a superfluid with the ordered structure of a crystalline solid.
Usually, solids do not move on their own, but super solids change direction and density depending on their particles’ interactions while maintaining an organised internal structure.
Properties of light - Light always travels at 3 lakh km per second in a vacuum.
It cannot be trapped and solidified because the particles of light, photons, have no rest mass and do not interact strongly with each other.
Light exists only as a particle or a wave.

Recent Findings – It marks the first time scientists have managed to couple light with matter to create a supersolid.
It used a quantum mechanical approach that relied on the properties of polaritons.
These are hybrid particles that sometimes behave like light and sometimes like matter.
They are created by coupling photons with packets of energy inside materials, like phonons (vibrational energy) or excitons (electron-hole pairs).
The researchers used an aluminium gallium arsenide semiconductor platform as a waveguide, a channel through which waves can pass, fitted with a source of excitons and a laser.
The waveguide had a microscopic structure with a periodic grating.
The etched ridges influenced the polaritons’ motion, trapping them in a regular pattern.
The team used a pulsed laser to maintain a dense polariton condensate at a temperature of about –269ºC.
Quantum theatre - This framework uses concepts from quantum mechanics to analyse theatrical performances, exploring themes like identity, observation, and play.
Potential applications - Through this experiment photonic supersolids become more accessible for experimentation.
Helps in producing lossless optical energy transport and optical computing elements.

Reference

The Hindu| supersolid |quantum theatre