#trapped ions

A high-numerical-aperture objective lens stack lowered close to a glass ultra-high-vacuum cell on a quantum-gas microscope, its retaining collar not yet tightened down

Every Crystal Has Its Own Speed of Light

Quantum-gas microscopes and trapped-ion chains now measure a lattice's own speed of light directly. A new paper compiles nine and a half orders of magnitude of it, and computes the exact experiment that would catch the crystal's hidden rest frame.

By Brecht Corbeel · September 25, 2026 · 14 min read

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