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Transparent aluminium is 'new state of matter'
July 27th, 2009 Enlarge
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.

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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.



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jaggspb - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 1.7 / 5 (6) rate How do we know he didn't invent the thing? flag earls - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 2.3 / 5 (6) rate "nearly invisible to extreme ultraviolet radiation."

*yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn*flag OregonWind - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 3 / 5 (2) rate 'How do we know he didn't invent the thing? "

That was an entire team. Hard to fake this type of claim.

I remember that in Star Trek when Scott gave to a guy the formula to create transparent aluminum or aluminium. Who could imagine that something, even if not exactly like that, would be possible? I am teaching science to my kids but also motivate them to read science fiction stories.

flag degojoey - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 1.9 / 5 (9) rate who cares if they did make a new state of matter, its gone in 40 femtoseconds!!! WTF can we do with that? useless..flag holoman - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 1.4 / 5 (10) rate Scientist have been known for many years to make
up and fudge data to support their most important
research,,,,,,,,more money !flag rustyrufus - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 3.8 / 5 (4) rate Is anyone here knowledgeable enough to explain how it is possible to determine that a form of matter is transparent when it only exists for 40 femtoseconds? flag h0dges - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 3 / 5 (4) rate Why choose aluminium that's my question. They sooooooo went for the headline.flag WithOneT - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 1.6 / 5 (7) rate This is not new. There is a company in the US that has been producing this product for the military for a while.flag Mr_Frontier - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 5 / 5 (5) rate Most radiation detection technology is quick enough, in the order of femtoseconds, to photomultiply and record quanta this small/fast. If a thin enough sheet of aluminium is placed in front of a UV source, the laser bombarding the sheet would render the spot irradiated "transparent" to the source behind it, which they claim isn't opaque anymore to a certain wavelength of UV. A fast detector could absolutely record a 40 femtosecond blip that will hit the detector on the opposing side of the sheet from which the laser is incident on. The UV can be confirmed on a calibrated oscilloscope. However, this is a totally general way to assume how experiment was performed, but the lack of detail in most of these articles creates assumptions like this; common. I hope this technique helps some people on here fill in the assumptions. Any other ideas?flag Mr_Frontier - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 3 / 5 (2) rate A possible use for this is a 40 femtosecond cycle optical transistor that may possibly even conduct electrical information to other components while its cycling/processing information optically. flag GrayMouser - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 2.6 / 5 (8) rate Scientist have been known for many years to make
up and fudge data to support their most important
research,,,,,,,,more money !

Except for AGW. They would NEVER falsify their data or models just to get their share of $17B (since 1988.)flag Frostfire - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 5 / 5 (1) rate A possible use for this is a 40 femtosecond cycle optical transistor that may possibly even conduct electrical information to other components while its cycling/processing information optically.




How quickly science fiction becomes science fact.

A possible use, someone is already thinking about making it, useful.

flag rustyrufus - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 4.3 / 5 (3) rate Mr Frontier, thanks for taking time to offer an answer to my question. Appreciated. :-)flag Ivan2 - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 2 / 5 (2) rate "Any other ideas?":

Is the aluminium decompressed or compressed? What happens when you decompress it?

(doesn't "mean" anything, it's just a hunch!)flag fhtmguy - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 2.4 / 5 (7) rate ____________________________________________
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.
__________________________________________________




Now that we have created transparent aluminum that lasts for "no time at all" maybe we should take the power from this INCREDIBLE "Laser" and power a city with the "short flash" instead of creating the illusive invisible metal. flag Arikin - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 3 / 5 (3) rate fhtmguy,
Simple answer is that we can study the material and the laser implosion to help understand miniature stars. For example nuclear fusion that would provide almost unlimited power.

We need to try and explore to move forward...flag Ivan2 - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 3 / 5 (4) rate "maybe we should take the power from this INCREDIBLE "Laser" and power a city with the "short flash" instead of creating the illusive invisible metal":



What if Scottie was right? What if there is a way to stabilize "invisible" aluminium?flag QubitTamer - Jul 27, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 3.6 / 5 (5) rate computer.... cooooommmmmpuuuuuuuterrrrrrr? Oh a keyboard!! How Quaint!flag dhughes - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 3 / 5 (3) rate Isn't 'Transparent aluminium' just a fancy name for colourless sapphire?flag iledius - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 2 / 5 (2) rate I can't but wonder if this kind of research really is the best way to use energy, money and expertise of the researchers? A whole city worth electricity for 40 femtosecond effect to study a phenomenon that MAYBE could prove useful SOMEDAY, when we could use the energy, money and expertise to improve the quality of life for all people and preserve the environment with the technology that we have available NOW?

I don't want to sound ignorant towards this kind of research, it's just that lately I've been wondering is it really necessary right here and right now?flag ShotmanMaslo - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 5 / 5 (2) rate iledius and others - This laser cannot power a city, and it doesnt even use a lot of energy. It uses that much power, but only for 40 femtoseconds. I doubt you want to power a city for 40 femtoseconds.
Remember, power is different thing than energy.flag iledius - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 4 / 5 (1) rate ShotmanMaslo: Thanks for clearing that up, I stand corrected. :)flag WithOneT - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 2 / 5 (2) rate I saw a feature about a company in Mass on the Discovery channel that has this product on the market already. Why is this "breakthrough" any different?

Hey everyone I just invented the wheel, come and look!flag antialias - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 3 / 5 (2) rate Now that we have created transparent aluminum that lasts for "no time at all" maybe we should take the power from this INCREDIBLE "Laser" and power a city with the "short flash" instead of creating the illusive invisible metal.




Because it would power the city only for 40 femtoseconds (Power is not equal to Energy).

Lasers of this kind are decidedly NOT built for continuous operation. The actual energy used in the experiment is rather small - just like a flash of lightning has a lot of POWER, but not a lot of ENERGY.



Example: At 10 million volts and 10000 Amperes and one microsecond duration a flash has only 0.027 kWh of Energy. For comparison: an average citizen uses about 6000kWH of Energy per year.



Or for this experiment (assuming a city needs something on the order of 1GW of power): At 40 femtoseconds that would be merely a total ENERGY output of about 10 nanoWattHours. You couldn't light up an LED with the energy provided by this experiment.flag nghtstr - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: not rated yet rate Listen, I know this doesn't seem like a big deal. However, like most scientific discoveries, it takes a bunch of smaller ones to make a lasting impact. I would challenge all of you nay-sayers out there to take a look at this again in 10 years, and I think that more than likely we will have things already using this discovery.

I remember some time ago when people were trying to transfer power wirelessly. Nowadays, it can be done, but just not effectively enough yet. In another few years, I would say it would be mainstream.

Every large scientific discovery takes one small discover to start it.

Personally, I congratulate them on their accomplishment!!flag Ethelred - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 4 / 5 (1) rate Isn't 'Transparent aluminium' just a fancy name for colourless sapphire?


No more than glass is another name for silicon. Sapphire is an oxide of aluminum just like glass is an oxide of silicon. Making a metal transparent is a tad harder than making an oxide transparent. I think it has to do with those electrons wandering around.

Ethelredflag Nuevo - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 1 / 5 (1) rate I have hypothesis that it is possible to fire a laser into a electrical magnetic generator to create
direct energy power source.
the issues are creating more energy than you expend firing the laser and capturing the energy that is created and transferring that energy to the power grid

and yes i do have a design for a magnetic energy generator and designs on creating new batteries and the flash transfer of power flag bluehigh - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 1 / 5 (1) rate Is this process destructive? Almost anything will turn transparent briefly as it vapourises.

If there is a change of state and modification to electron distribution, is it still a metal?

Perhaps it is a saphire momentarily but more likely just a gas!

flag mangodurian - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 1 / 5 (1) rate Erm ... maybe the super powerful FLASH laser that is brighter than the light from a whole city actually *burnt a hole* through the really thin aluminium?!

flag otto1923 - Jul 28, 2009 Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: 5 / 5 (1) rate So let's figure out how to make sapphires the size of whale tanks. Rank that Mr. Rankerflag James_D - 18 hours ago Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: not rated yet rate I don't know if this transparent aluminium is real or not biut if it is real then it would be great feel to have a transparent aluminium version of my brand new monster of a vehicle Mahindra Xylo. That would be one tough, light and show it all car. Different concept for Xylo. It'd look great http://www.mahindraxylo.co.inflag bluehigh - 4 hours ago Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: not rated yet rate I expect we can make sapphires large enough to contain a couple of whales. Like many technological challenges its a matter of time and money. In the case of whales we may not have enough time and does anyone care enough to spend the money. Better to wait a few centuries, borrow a klingon bird of prey, sling shot around the sun to achieve time travel, meet a pretty girl and save the whales all in a few days .. much more fun.
flag fhtmguy - 39 minutes ago Current rank 1 2 3 4 5 Rank: not rated yet rate I undestand that the energy output of the laser is extremely small. I was making fun of the way the article was written!

Come on, this is really not transparent aluminum, and I don't believe they proved this a new state of matter. At best it might be considered an altered state due to the way the radiation "knocked out" an electron. These scientists or the article writer should word the facts in a factual way. While Transpartent aluminum may be possible, this procedure will probably not produce it anytime soon, unless they want to produce continual radiation to keep it transparent. flag Please register or sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

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