Physicists at the Bhavnagar University in Gujarat, India, have discovered a way to trap, store, and release laser light in a fluid on command. The fluid operates at room temperature, and is controlled with magnetic fields.
[The scientists] coated micron-size magnetite spheres with oleic acid and dispersed them through a ferrofluid, which is a suspension of much smaller magnetic nanoparticles (in this case held in kerosene). When an external magnetic field was applied to the fluid, which was held in a glass cell, laser light passing through the medium was trapped inside. Photons escaped when the field was switched off.
Could this be a solution for an optical storage medium, to complement an optical processor?
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