In an ordinary room, light vanishes the moment you switch off the lamp. In a tiny silicon nitride cavity, a photon can bounce between the walls 80,000 times before it gets lost. It's like a ball thrown into a room that rebounds off the walls with almost no loss of speed.

Such cavities are made from a material similar to glass but able to withstand high temperatures and compatible with electronics. The problem is that silicon nitride refracts light weakly, so making the walls perfectly reflective is tricky. Previously, the best samples held light for only a few thousand bounces.

The record wasn't achieved by hand but through computer-aided design. The algorithm sifted through millions of hole patterns in a plate until it found one that makes light swirl inside like water in a whirlpool.

In such a tight trap, light becomes so dense that it starts interacting with itself. Two photons can merge into one with double the energy — turning blue light into ultraviolet. Or three photons combine to produce an even shorter wavelength. Both effects were observed in the same cavity.

This means the trap could be embedded in an optical chip where light performs computations or transmits data. Like a ball that still flies with its original force after 80,000 bounces, a photon retains its energy long enough to be controlled.