FLASH Laser Leads to Discovery of New State of Matter

FLASH Laser Leads to Discovery of New State of Matter

Like a scene out of Star Trek, Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. 'Transparent aluminium' previously only existed in science fiction, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with important implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion.


In this week’s Nature Physics an international team, led by Oxford University scientists, report that a short pulse from the FLASH laser ‘knocked out’ a core electron from every aluminium atom in a sample without disrupting the metal’s crystalline structure. This turned the aluminium nearly invisible to extreme ultraviolet radiation.

''What we have created is a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before,’ said Professor Justin Wark of Oxford University’s Department of Physics, one of the authors of the paper. ‘Transparent aluminium is just the start. The physical properties of the matter we are creating are relevant to the conditions inside large planets, and we also hope that by studying it we can gain a greater understanding of what is going on during the creation of 'miniature stars' created by high-power laser implosions, which may one day allow the power of nuclear fusion to be harnessed here on Earth.’

Read the full article here

Well I have to admit this is a pretty damn cool new technological advancement we have made. If you read the article you'll see there are a lot of applications for this - the idea of it helping with nuclear fusion sounds good to me especially if it allows us to harness the power.

I can't wait to see what practical implications this will bring in the future, and who knows this all may lead to even more breakthroughs.

I remember hearing something about this quite a while ago. A few months at least. Pretty cool though IMO.

wouldn't that make it highly ionized? positively charged?

Probably wouldn't want to bring a live electrical wire close to it.

Does this mean we could make a plane invisible ? ( eventually )

That would explain why we never see any ET's

Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
Does this mean we could make a plane invisible ? ( eventually )

That would explain why we never see any ET's

That is exactly what I was just thinking. I'm wondering if this technology were to be advanced enough to be used on something such as carbon fiber for example along with the aluminum to be made into some sort of craft, would it be detectable with radar still? Technically it should but then again I have no idea because I don't fully understand the capabilities of how this works.

I'm thinking if the public is just hearing about this now, then the military has already been working with this sort of stuff for a long time. In fact I can bet that they have cloaking capabilities, and have had them, for some time now.

Responses anyone? I thought more people would find this an interesting subject to discuss. Maybe I should have put it in breaking news since this really is a new discovery.

Don't expect to see this on store shelves anytime soon.

Whilst the invisible effect lasted for only an extremely brief period - an estimated 40 femtoseconds - it demonstrates that such an exotic state of matter can be created using very high power X-ray sources.

Who gets to name this new state of matter? I say we call it smollid.

Before everyone starts saying "aha, that's why we don't see ETs" and "military will soon have invisible planes", it can't hurt to actually read the article.

Whilst the invisible effect lasted for only an extremely brief period - an estimated 40 femtoseconds - it demonstrates that such an exotic state of matter can be created using very high power X-ray sources.

For all of you laypeople, a femtosecond is 10 to the power of -15. If you can imagine such thing.

In other words, you wouldn't notice anything even if you looked real hard

First of all, this is really cool news and I'm sure other uses will be brought to light (no pun intended) for this new state of matter.

With that said look at our level of advancement from 1950 - 1999.

Then look at 2000-2010. I bet you will find more huge advancements in those 10 years as opposed to the other 49. It's really insane how fast we are advancing technologically. Exciting times (for science anyway).

reply to post by highlyoriginal

''What we have created is a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before,’ said Professor Justin Wark of Oxford University’s Department of Physics

That's a huge claim and I'm surprised and disappointed to see an Oxford Professor of Physics using scientific terminology in such a cavalier fashion.

I was honestly expecting to read about a genuinely 'new state of matter' - i.e not a solid, liquid, gas or plasma. Isn't this just another crystalline solid?

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

That said it's an interesting discovery and will no doubt lead to wonderful new materials in the future.

My first post incidentally so, erm ... "Hello World"

[edit on 28/5/10 by Crazy Man Michael]

Originally posted by buddhasystem
Before everyone starts saying "aha, that's why we don't see ETs" and "military will soon have invisible planes", it can't hurt to actually read the article.

Whilst the invisible effect lasted for only an extremely brief period - an estimated 40 femtoseconds - it demonstrates that such an exotic state of matter can be created using very high power X-ray sources.

For all of you laypeople, a femtosecond is 10 to the power of -15. If you can imagine such thing.

In other words, you wouldn't notice anything even if you looked real hard

Remember though, as I stated, if this is what the public is just seeing, the military is more than likely much more advanced than this - in fact they have technologies that most people aren't even aware exist whatsoever. Point being that they more than likely are able to keep things hidden much longer than what these scientists are currently able to do.

Also, they just came out with this tech, so obviously it needs to be refined. I'm sure they're working, and have been, on a way to keep the aluminum 'invisible' longer.

Originally posted by Crazy Man Michael
That's a huge claim and I'm surprised and disappointed to see an Oxford Professor of Physics using scientific terminology in such a cavalier fashion.

I was honestly expecting to read about a genuinely 'new state of matter' - i.e not a solid, liquid, gas or plasma. Isn't this just another crystalline solid?

I think that it technically is a new state of matter - at least while it is transparent (which yes, as stated above is for only a brief moment currently).

If it were the same state of matter, it wouldn't be transparent, would it? If you can find me another piece of material anywhere that is transparent that is has been classified as a solid/liquid/gas/plasma then by all means please do share, but I believe this is something never really seen before therefore it really is a new type of matter. However for the sake of argument I'll just drop it because I honestly don't care what it is, it's still cool

Originally posted by highlyoriginal
If it were the same state of matter, it wouldn't be transparent, would it? If you can find me another piece of material anywhere that is transparent that is has been classified as a solid/liquid/gas/plasma then by all means please do share, but I believe this is something never really seen before therefore it really is a new type of matter. However for the sake of argument I'll just drop it because I honestly don't care what it is, it's still cool

I can name something transparent that is still a state of matter.

Polyethylene. You can have two objects made out of the exact same polyethylene, but one can be a matte, solid color, and the other could be entirely transparent. To the point of perfect invisibility, no, you can still see it, but the principle is the same.

Also, I don't understand why so many people claim (ignorantly) that the military has such highly advanced materials. Unless you were a military scientist, I don't think one should make this claim. I have a relative who was in the air force, and ranked very highly. He was also in there for mechanical engineering. If anyone had seen super secret stuff, he has. Has he seen stuff the public hasn't? Of course. But nothing super high tech. They do not have cloaking devices, for one thing. When the everyday scientists perfect the aforementioned technology, then our military may have cloaking devices. They, however, do not as of late.

Originally posted by highlyoriginal

Originally posted by buddhasystem
Before everyone starts saying "aha, that's why we don't see ETs" and "military will soon have invisible planes", it can't hurt to actually read the article.

Whilst the invisible effect lasted for only an extremely brief period - an estimated 40 femtoseconds - it demonstrates that such an exotic state of matter can be created using very high power X-ray sources.

For all of you laypeople, a femtosecond is 10 to the power of -15. If you can imagine such thing.

In other words, you wouldn't notice anything even if you looked real hard

Remember though, as I stated, if this is what the public is just seeing, the military is more than likely much more advanced than this - in fact they have technologies that most people aren't even aware exist whatsoever.

This is a really, really, really shaky argument, especially as it relates to the OP.

Somebody dumps a humongous amount of energy produced by a laser, into a microscopic volume, and produces a highly [em]transient[/em] state of matter for a period of time shorter than it would take a ray of light to propagate from one end of human sperm to the other. It can't be a stable state of matter, no matter who does it -- civilians, military or an exotic tribe in Bora Bora.

Well, without taking either a "skeptic" or "believer" stance on the ET thingie ...

It would stand to reason than any visiting civilization is much more technologically advanced than ours and could potentially have mastered the stable manifestation of this new state of matter. The important factor here is the discovery ... if it exists then it can be ameliorated, hence although it doesn't prove that ET are visiting us using this technology it does show that they potentially could. Not only that, but it further opens the mind to the possibilities of many more states yet to be discovered ... ET or no ET, still rather kewl imho.

If Transparent aluminium is "just the start" then I think I'll be following this with a close eye. That's the kind of technology that shapes society folks.

Underwater homes just came that little bit closer to existence.

Remain Vigilant

Originally posted by highlyoriginal

Originally posted by Crazy Man Michael
That's a huge claim and I'm surprised and disappointed to see an Oxford Professor of Physics using scientific terminology in such a cavalier fashion.

I was honestly expecting to read about a genuinely 'new state of matter' - i.e not a solid, liquid, gas or plasma. Isn't this just another crystalline solid?

I think that it technically is a new state of matter - at least while it is transparent (which yes, as stated above is for only a brief moment currently).

If it were the same state of matter, it wouldn't be transparent, would it?
If you can find me another piece of material anywhere that is transparent that is has been classified as a solid/liquid/gas/plasma then by all means please do share, but I believe this is something never really seen before therefore it really is a new type of matter. However for the sake of argument I'll just drop it because I honestly don't care what it is, it's still cool

I think the problem here is misunderstanding what is meant by State of Matter.

State of Matter

Sorry if I'm being pedantic here, but science is based upon precise meanings and definitions, so it is important (or should be)

It's a scientific term with a precise meaning. All matter exists in a particular 'state' - it is either solid, liquid, gas or plasma. This is pretty basic science taught to 11 year olds at the school I work at (as a science technician) Which is why I'm very surprised at an Oxford Professor using the term in such a misleading, offhand phrase -

"'What we have created is a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before"

He's done nothing of the kind. If he'd really discovered a 'new state of matter' it would be of enormous significance to science and would guarantee a Nobel Physics prize!

And, yes, there are many transparent solid materials - polythene, glass, mica crystals, diamonds etc.

This is a material with new properties, but it's not a 'new state'

Similarly there's a huge difference between transparent and invisible - but they're being used as if they were the same thing.

And it isn't even transparency/invisibility to the eye it seems, but to UV light which is outside the visible spectrum of light.

This turned the aluminium nearly invisible to extreme ultraviolet radiation.

Nevertheless, a fascinating and cool discovery - thanks for posting it

[edit on 28/5/10 by Crazy Man Michael]