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What can quasiparticles do for our future?
To study objects on a microscopic scale, scientists often use ultra-bright light sources. Free electron lasers, which show the best results, accelerate electrons several kilometers to the speed of light, passing them through a large hall of magnets to produce intense photon pulses to study materials.
Now, an international team of physicists believe they can achieve the same effect with a much smaller device, using quasiparticles – particle-like entities that arise from the complex interactions of a collective of other particles. If their concept can be developed into a working technology, it could provide researchers around the world with even more unsurpassed visibility into the minute structures they study, giving them insights into viruses, computer chips, photosynthesis, and the chemistry of stars.
Quasiparticles are coherent systems that can arise when media are disturbed or excited. Even though they are formed by collective effort, they can be considered discrete particles because they have stable properties such as charge, mass, energy, size, shape, and momentum. They can even move faster than light in the same environment.
"The most amazing aspect of quasiparticles is their ability to move in ways that would be forbidden by the laws of physics governing individual particles," says physicist and co - author John Palastro.
Researchers have shown that it is theoretically possible to create a superluminal beam using quasiparticles inside a plasma laser, creating wavelengths between the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum.
"Such progress could lead research and technology that is only available in a few free electron lasers around the world directly to many universities, hospitals, and industrial laboratories," the researchers wrote.
To study objects on a microscopic scale, scientists often use ultra-bright light sources. Free electron lasers, which show the best results, accelerate electrons several kilometers to the speed of light, passing them through a large hall of magnets to produce intense photon pulses to study materials.
Now, an international team of physicists believe they can achieve the same effect with a much smaller device, using quasiparticles – particle-like entities that arise from the complex interactions of a collective of other particles. If their concept can be developed into a working technology, it could provide researchers around the world with even more unsurpassed visibility into the minute structures they study, giving them insights into viruses, computer chips, photosynthesis, and the chemistry of stars.
Quasiparticles are coherent systems that can arise when media are disturbed or excited. Even though they are formed by collective effort, they can be considered discrete particles because they have stable properties such as charge, mass, energy, size, shape, and momentum. They can even move faster than light in the same environment.
"The most amazing aspect of quasiparticles is their ability to move in ways that would be forbidden by the laws of physics governing individual particles," says physicist and co - author John Palastro.
Researchers have shown that it is theoretically possible to create a superluminal beam using quasiparticles inside a plasma laser, creating wavelengths between the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum.
"Such progress could lead research and technology that is only available in a few free electron lasers around the world directly to many universities, hospitals, and industrial laboratories," the researchers wrote.
