| Sumario: | This article reports on the plans of two physicists to create a computer that can process information directly from light. The trick to making a successful all-optical computer, then, would be to create components that were capable of switching and processing light without converting it into electricity.The speed of light is highest in a vacuum. When light passes through a material such as air or glass, it slows down--but not by much. However, a tailor-made material can slow light down to walking pace, or even halt it. Since light is a form of electromagnetic radiation it will, if the circumstances are propitious, induce an electric field in a dielectric material, and thus interact with that material. The maths is complicated, but this turns out to hold the light stationary. Reverse the process, and the light shoots away again. Such a system, if successfully put into practice, should allow light to be stored in a chip.
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