Press Release 04-161
Season's Greetings at the Speed of Light

MIT presents an ultrafast holiday offering

Each image shows the "snapshot" of a highly structured, half-millimeter-wide laser pulse. Credit and Larger Version

December 23, 2004

Most days, MIT chemist Keith Nelson and his team do cutting-edge research with femtosecond laser pulses—flashes of light that last about a thousandth-of-a-trillionth (10^-15) of a second, or roughly the amount of time it takes a light beam to cross from one circuit feature to the next in a conventional computer chip.

And most days, the scientists are focused on the serious, long-term applications of their work, which include a variety of potential uses in fundamental science, as well as in communications and signal-processing technologies.

As 2004 draws to a close, however, Nelson and his coworkers have demonstrated their techniques for shaping and manipulating the femtosecond pulses with a seasonal offering. Each of the symbols shown here is actually a highly structured, half-millimeter-wide swarm of laser photons flying in formation from left to right at the speed of light. The images are produced by analyzing the photons in an ultrafast detection system, then plotting their vertical position and time of arrival.

Result: the world's fastest holiday greeting.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
M. Mitchell Waldrop, NSF (703) 292-8070 mwaldrop@nsf.gov

Principal Investigators
Keith Nelson, MIT (617) 253-1423 kanelson@mit.edu

Related Websites
The Nelson Laboratory web site: http://nelson.mit.edu/

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2009, its budget is $9.5 billion, which includes $3.0 billion provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to over 1,900 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 44,400 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

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