Strong blue lasers might turn salty water into a metal for a very short time

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This is the first experiment of its kind, demonstrating that salty water can be a good electrical conductor at terahertz frequencies, if only for an instant. I am thrilled by the possibility that this work might open new research venues and maybe even new water-based technologies. There is this old movie, The Abyss, where an advanced alien race lives at the bottom of the ocean. At some point, the aliens use a “water robot” as a probe. “Their technology is based on water,” says the scientist later on in the movie, if I remember right. This is the far-reaching dream I have, that this work could be the spark that light a new technology. Coming down to earth, I think that this work could be relevant for all the colleagues that work with similar experiments. These salty water samples could be used as benchmark, or to control the terahertz frequency. The next step we are thinking about is to build a new detector based on this effect, where a salty liquid replaces a solid semiconductor.

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