Technique to turn light into matter found

London: In a breakthrough, scientists have for the first time discovered a revolutionary technique to turn light into matter, a feat thought impossible when the idea was first theorised 80 years ago.

Three physicists at the Imperial College London’s Blackett Physics Laboratory worked out a relatively simple way to physically prove a theory first devised by scientists Breit and Wheeler in 1934.

Breit and Wheeler suggested that it should be possible to turn light into matter by smashing together only two particles of light ( photons), to create an electron and a positron, the simplest method of turning light into matter ever predicted.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Photonics , shows for the first time how Breit and Wheeler’s theory could be proven in practice. This “photon- photon collider”, which would convert light directly into matter using technology that is already available, would be a new type of high- energy experiment.

The scientists had been investigating unrelated problems in fusion energy when they realised what they were working on could be applied to the BreitWheeler theory.

Demonstrating the BreitWheeler theory would provide the final jigsaw piece of a physics puzzle which describes the simplest ways in which light and matter interact. The collider experiment involves two key steps.

First, the scientists would use a powerful high- intensity laser to speed up electrons to just below the speed of light. They would then fire these electrons into a slab of gold to create a beam of photons a billion times more energetic than visible light.

The next stage involves a tiny gold can called a hohlraum ( German for “empty room”). Scientists would fire a high- energy laser at the inner surface of this gold can, to create a thermal radiation field, generating light similar to the light emitted by stars.