Physicists Store Short Movie In A Cloud of Gas

Physicists Store Short Movie In A Cloud of Gas: Rubidium atoms have an interesting property in that a magnetic field causes their electronic energy levels to split, creating a multitude of new levels. Switching the field off, returns the atoms to their normal state...
These guys have used exactly this technique to store two images at the same time...

The images are the letter T and the letter N and the sequence of pictures above shows the images being released from the gas, as recorded by a high speed camera in 100 nanosecond frames. "We have demonstrated that multiple images can be stored and retrieved at different times, allowing the storage of a short movie in an atomic memory," say Glorieux and co.
Interestingly, the images are released on a "last in, first out" basis, so this movie is running backwards.