Transparent Aluminum - New State of Matter

[Effluo]

Someone call Scotty, we finally got his parts in!

Transparent Aluminum is 'new state of matter'

Transparent aluminium is 'new state of matter'
July 27th, 2009
Experimental set-up at the FLASH laser used to discover the new state of matter.

(PhysOrg.com) -- 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, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with 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.’

The discovery was made possible with the development of a new source of radiation that is ten billion times brighter than any synchrotron in the world (such as the UK’s Diamond Light Source). The FLASH laser, based in Hamburg, Germany, produces extremely brief pulses of soft X-ray light, each of which is more powerful than the output of a power plant that provides electricity to a whole city.

The Oxford team, along with their international colleagues, focused all this power down into a spot with a diameter less than a twentieth of the width of a human hair. At such high intensities the aluminium turned transparent.

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.

Professor Wark added: ‘What is particularly remarkable about our experiment is that we have turned ordinary aluminium into this exotic new material in a single step by using this very powerful laser. For a brief period the sample looks and behaves in every way like a new form of matter. In certain respects, the way it reacts is as though we had changed every aluminium atom into silicon: it’s almost as surprising as finding that you can turn lead into gold with light!’

The researchers believe that the new approach is an ideal way to create and study such exotic states of matter and will lead to further work relevant to areas as diverse as planetary science, astrophysics and nuclear fusion power.

A report of the research, 'Turning solid aluminium transparent by intense soft X-ray photoionization', is published in Nature Physics. The research was carried out by an international team led by Oxford University scientists Professor Justin Wark, Dr Bob Nagler, Dr Gianluca Gregori, William Murphy, Sam Vinko and Thomas Whitcher.

I'm quite interested to see where this goes.

[Olo401]

Scotty>> How do we know he didn't invent the bloody thing?!

[Max™]

The terms exotic and matter excite me, but this isn't the kind I'm thinking of.

If you could arrange the components of matter properly you might be able to create directionally oriented gravitational fields, which could turn my previous comment on wormholes as "utter bullshit" around.

This is just an interesting arrangement of materials, could do wonders for the metamaterial researchers trying to develop invisibility cloaks though.

Make something which lets visible light in from one direction, but only lets it out another direction, use those properties to channel it around an object and release it, whatever is obscured by that material wouldn't be visible.

Being able to alter the arrangement of electrons in a crystalline structure at room temperature will be a feat, doing it after zapping something with a huge amount of x-rays... neat but not useful.

[Tristam]

Professor Wark?

I love science names.

[Dimmauk]

The terms exotic and matter excite me, but this isn't the kind I'm thinking of.

If you could arrange the components of matter properly you might be able to create directionally oriented gravitational fields, which could turn my previous comment on wormholes as "utter bullshit" around.

This is just an interesting arrangement of materials, could do wonders for the metamaterial researchers trying to develop invisibility cloaks though.

Make something which lets visible light in from one direction, but only lets it out another direction, use those properties to channel it around an object and release it, whatever is obscured by that material wouldn't be visible.

Being able to alter the arrangement of electrons in a crystalline structure at room temperature will be a feat, doing it after zapping something with a huge amount of x-rays... neat but not useful.

I was thinking the same thing. This is crazy awesome news.

[oldoldman]

This seems about as useful as Bose-Einstein Condensates.

[Max™]

You mean very useful right?

Bose-Einstein Condensates have amazing potential for quantum computing applications when the technology matures.

[Drex]

Professor Wark?

I love science names.

I look forward to the findings of his associate, Doctor Kweh

[oldoldman]

You mean very useful right?

Bose-Einstein Condensates have amazing potential for quantum computing applications when the technology matures.

If the technology matures, so I'm saying that it could be useful but so far no go. Hence them being equally useful.

[Lazion]

Cool

[archibaldcrane]

I look forward to the findings of his associate, Doctor Kweh

You rang?

Kweh~

[zoobernut]

Cool

Awesome first post bro.

This is really fascinating, I hope they do find a way to create it in a practical sense. Even if they don't though it will help us understand how matter reacts to different situations better.

When are they going to create room temperature super conductors dammit!

[oldoldman]

Awesome first post bro.

This is really fascinating, I hope they do find a way to create it in a practical sense. Even if they don't though it will help us understand how matter reacts to different situations better.

When are they going to create room temperature super conductors dammit!

Aren't they only at like 120 K right now?

[zoobernut]

The wiki says some of the newer superconductors have critical temperatures of approx. 130 K so you are right on. I know the most easily created readily available superconductors are cooled with liquid nitrogen which boils at 77 K.

So if we want an operating temp of around 75 F then we are about 165 K or so away from a superconductor that operates that temp.

I think you could go a little cooler for a superconductor computer components though.

[Quicklet]

This turned the aluminium nearly invisible to extreme ultraviolet radiation.

I feel like whoever wrote this article is trying to make it a bigger deal than it sounds like. It sounds more like it was non-interacting for 40 fs than "invisible" the way we'd think of it. Interesting concept, nonetheless.

[oldoldman]

The wiki says some of the newer superconductors have critical temperatures of approx. 130 K so you are right on. I know the most easily created readily available superconductors are cooled with liquid nitrogen which boils at 77 K.

So if we want an operating temp of around 75 F then we are about 165 K or so away from a superconductor that operates that temp.

I think you could go a little cooler for a superconductor computer components though.

165k is a lot, a whole lot. The good news about us being at 130 K is that at that temperature we can use liquid oxygen to cool, which is cheaper.

[zoobernut]

Liquid oxygen is cheaper and warmer than liquid nitrogen? I remember when liquid nitrogen could be purchased at the local welding shop and cost just slightly less than a gallon of milk.

Edit: wow I did not know that liquid oxygen had a boiling point of 90 K.

[Khamsin]

I feel like whoever wrote this article is trying to make it a bigger deal than it sounds like. It sounds more like it was non-interacting for 40 fs than "invisible" the way we'd think of it. Interesting concept, nonetheless.

So a big ol' solid block of aluminum didn't vanish before their eyes?

[Neosutra]

To bad it isnt stable.

[Mizango]

To bad it isnt stable.

Ding! Correct.