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Solid light
Hypothetical solid form of light

Solid light, or hard light, is a theoretical material composed of light in a solidified state, commonly featured in science fiction. Recent experiments suggest the possibility of creating solid photonic matter by inducing strong interactions between photons. This breakthrough could lead to innovations such as logic gates for quantum computers and advances toward room-temperature superconductors. Notably, a team of Italian scientists announced in March 2025 in Nature Journal that they have discovered a method to make light behave like a "supersolid," marking a significant step in photonic research.

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Fiction

See also: Holography in fiction

Solid light appears in several video game franchises, including Halo, Portal, and Overwatch. In Portal 2, sunlight is used to create "hard light bridges", which act as solid semi-transparent walkways or barriers.9 In Overwatch, the fictional Vishkar Corporation uses solid light as a construction material.10 In Halo, solid light is the foundation of Forerunner weapons and many of their utilitarian devices like retractable bridges.

Solid holograms appear many times in the TV show Star Trek.1112 In Red Dwarf, the character Rimmer is a hologram who obtains a "hard light drive", allowing him to become tangible.13 In the animated show Steven Universe, several main characters are aliens who have physical forms made out of light, with a gemstone as the only material part of their body.1415

In DC Comics' Green Lantern, the various Lantern Corps use solid light constructs.16 In Marvel Comics properties, "hard light" manifests in many forms. For example, Ms. Marvel utilizes photon blasts to generate concussive force.17 The X-Men's Danger Room also utilizes hard light constructs in its simulations.

Experiments

Photons, the particles that make up forms of electromagnetic radiation like light, do not normally interact with one another, but may be made to interact in a nonlinear medium.18

The MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms conducted experiments on photon interaction in the 2010s. Single photons were fired from weak lasers into a dense cloud of rubidium cooled to near absolute zero. The speed of light in the cloud was about 100,000 times slower than in a vacuum. Within the cloud, photons lost energy and gained mass. The conditions allowed photons to attract and bind to other photons, and exit the cloud as molecules. Reportedly, photon pairs were observed in 2013, and triplets in 2018.1920

See also

References

  1. University of Melbourne (7 May 2007). "Could Light Behave As A Solid? A New Theory". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 30 January 2016. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070506160623.htm ↩

  2. Raftery, J.; Sadri, D.; Schmidt, S.; Türeci, H. E.; Houck, A. A. (8 September 2014). "Observation of a Dissipation-Induced Classical to Quantum Transition". Physical Review X. 4 (3): 031043. arXiv:1312.2963. Bibcode:2014PhRvX...4c1043R. doi:10.1103/physrevx.4.031043. ISSN 2160-3308. https://doi.org/10.1103%2Fphysrevx.4.031043 ↩

  3. Freeman, David (16 September 2014). "Scientists Say They've Created A Freaky New Form Of Light". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 30 January 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/16/solid-light-created_n_5824268.html ↩

  4. Reuell, Peter (27 September 2013). "Seeing light in a new way". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 30 January 2016. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/09/seeing-light-in-a-new-way ↩

  5. Chu, Jennifer (15 February 2018). "Physicists create new form of light". MIT News. Retrieved 2 January 2021. https://news.mit.edu/2018/physicists-create-new-form-light-0215 ↩

  6. Reuell, Peter (27 September 2013). "Seeing light in a new way". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 30 January 2016. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/09/seeing-light-in-a-new-way ↩

  7. Freeman, David (16 September 2014). "Scientists Say They've Created A Freaky New Form Of Light". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 30 January 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/16/solid-light-created_n_5824268.html ↩

  8. "Scientists freeze light: Researchers discover a rare state of matter where it flows like liquid but holds shape like a solid - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. 12 March 2025. Retrieved 13 March 2025.[unreliable source?] https://m.economictimes.com/news/new-updates/scientists-freeze-light-researchers-discover-a-rare-state-of-matter-where-it-flows-like-liquid-but-holds-shape-like-a-solid/articleshow/118928851.cms ↩

  9. "Hard Light". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2023-05-24. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HardLight ↩

  10. "Hard Light". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2023-05-24. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HardLight ↩

  11. "Hard Light". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2023-05-24. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HardLight ↩

  12. "Meet the Man Behind the Holodeck, Part 1". 25 July 2023. https://www.startrek.com/article/meet-the-man-behind-the-holodeck-part-1 ↩

  13. "Hard Light". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2023-05-24. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HardLight ↩

  14. The Classroom Gems: What Are Gems? | Steven Universe | Cartoon Network, 18 November 2015, retrieved 2024-02-05 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOEScwq3slY ↩

  15. "Steven Universe S1E24 "An Indirect Kiss" / Recap". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2024-02-05. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StevenUniverseS1E24AnIndirectKiss ↩

  16. "Hard Light". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2023-05-24. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HardLight ↩

  17. "Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) Powers, Abilities, Villains | Marvel". www.marvel.com. Retrieved 2024-02-13. https://www.marvel.com/characters/captain-marvel-carol-danvers/in-comics ↩

  18. Firstenberg, Ofer; Peyronel, Thibault; Liang, Qi-Yu; Gorshkov, Alexey V.; Lukin, Mikhail D.; Vuletić, Vladan (25 September 2013). "Attractive photons in a quantum nonlinear medium" (PDF). Nature. 502 (7469). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 71–75. Bibcode:2013Natur.502...71F. doi:10.1038/nature12512. hdl:1721.1/91605. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 24067613. S2CID 1699899. https://authors.library.caltech.edu/42032/7/nature12512-s1.pdf ↩

  19. Reuell, Peter (27 September 2013). "Seeing light in a new way". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 30 January 2016. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/09/seeing-light-in-a-new-way ↩

  20. Chu, Jennifer (15 February 2018). "Physicists create new form of light". MIT News. Retrieved 2 January 2021. https://news.mit.edu/2018/physicists-create-new-form-light-0215 ↩