Observation of coherent optical information storage in an atomic medium using halted light pulses.

Discusses the observation of coherent optical information storage in an atomic medium using halted light pulses. Use of electromagnetically induced transparency to bring laser pulses to a complete stop in a magnetically trapped, cold cloud of sodium atoms; Presentation of a theoretical model which reveals that the system is self-adjusting to minimize dissipative loss during the 'read' and 'write' operations; Applications for quantum information processing.