Transparent Aluminium Now Exists

[Hylian]

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/ ... 727_2.html

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.

 

[Bubble181]

...awesome.

 

[Pojodan]

Now to just come up with a reason to transport a humpback whale into outter space!

 

[Iaculus]

Funky.

 

[Denbrought]

I love how scientific thread titles are invariably awesome and then, when you read the quote, they progressively get mellower. Until you go from thinking "hot damn invisible swords and chainswords!" to "oh, temporarily invisible iota of aluminium at exorbitant prices."

Also, inb4 aluminum.

 

[Dubyamn]

I love how scientific thread titles are invariably awesome and then, when you read the quote, they progressively get mellower. Until you go from thinking "hot damn invisible swords and chainswords!" to "oh, temporarily invisible iota of aluminium at exorbitant prices."

Also, inb4 aluminum.

invisible only on the ultraviolet light.

But even then it is incredibly cool I mean that they were able to do it without effecting the structure of the aluminum.

 

[figmentPez]

invisible only on the ultraviolet light.

and only for a few femtoseconds.

I thought the transparent ceramic aluminum from a few years ago was far more interesting, but what do I know.

 

[Ravenpoe]

Only lasting a few femtoseconds and only being invisible to ultraviolet light both make this far less cool than I thought it would be.


The fact that it was made with an ultra-powerful laser does help redeem it a little bit.

 

[Pojodan]

It's kinda like that kid down the street that came running over, screaming 'I'VE GOT A ROCKET TO GO TO THE MOON!' And you rush over to see, only to discover that his 'rocket' is a trash bin with paper cone ontop, with 'rockit' written on the side, then he gets in ontop of the edge of the porch, pushes off onto the trampoline below, bounces a good 7 feet into the air, hits the edge and tumbles out, wailing, to which you go running home before his mom comes out to find what the fuss is about.

 

[WolfOfOdin]

It's kinda like that kid down the street that came running over, screaming 'I'VE GOT A ROCKET TO GO TO THE MOON!' And you rush over to see, only to discover that his 'rocket' is a trash bin with paper cone ontop, with 'rockit' written on the side, then he gets in ontop of the edge of the porch, pushes off onto the trampoline below, bounces a good 7 feet into the air, hits the edge and tumbles out, wailing, to which you go running home before his mom comes out to find what the fuss is about.

.....You lived on my street when I was little?!

 

[Mr_Chaz]

It's kinda like that kid down the street that came running over, screaming 'I'VE GOT A ROCKET TO GO TO THE MOON!' And you rush over to see, only to discover that his 'rocket' is a trash bin with paper cone ontop, with 'rockit' written on the side, then he gets in ontop of the edge of the porch, pushes off onto the trampoline below, bounces a good 7 feet into the air, hits the edge and tumbles out, wailing, to which you go running home before his mom comes out to find what the fuss is about.

.....You lived on my street when I was little?!

No, he just had a video camera there.

 

[Calleja]

that was one expensive fucking experiment. More power in a laser than a whole power plant? Fuck's sake. That's the kind of laser that gives people super powers.

 

[Hylian]

that was one expensive fucking experiment. More power in a laser than a whole power plant? Fuck's sake. That's the kind of laser that gives people super powers.

oooh! Shoot me with it! Shoot me with it!

 

[Gill Kaiser]

I thought transparent aluminium had been around for ages?

 

[Terrik]

Coming soon! Transparisteel!