Latest Quantum optics Stories

Vienna University of Technology A light wave oscillates perpendicular to its propagation direction – that is what students learn in school. However, scientists of the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) now perform atom-physics experiments with light oscillating in the longitudinal direction. Storing light in a bottle is easier than one might think: Laser light can be coupled into an optical glass fiber in such a way that it does not travel along the fiber but rather spirals...

JQI lab sets a new record for creating heralded photons HERALDING Entanglement, by general consensus of physicists, is the weirdest part of quantum science. To say that two particles, A and B, are entangled means that they are actually two parts of an inseparable quantum thing. An important consequence of this inherent kinship is that measuring a property of A (say, the particle's polarization) is necessarily to know the corresponding property of B, even if you're not there with a...

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the bizarre world of quantum physics, objects can be in more than one place at a time and future events can change the past. New research involving a Texas A&M University professor makes that microscopic realm even a bit stranger. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120502/DC99584LOGO) Quantum physicist M. Suhail Zubairy, along with a post-doctoral fellow and Saudi researchers, have discovered a form...

University of Vienna A team led by the Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger has now carried out an experiment with photons, in which they have closed an important loophole. The researchers have thus provided the most complete experimental proof that the quantum world is in conflict with our everyday experience. The results of this study appear this week in the renowned journal Nature (Advance Online Publication/AOP). When we observe an object, we make a number of intuitive assumptions,...

Carbon nanotubes can be used as quantum bits for quantum computers. A study by physicists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) has shown how nanotubes can store information in the form of vibrations. Up to now, researchers have experimented primarily with electrically charged particles. Because nanomechanical devices are not charged, they are much less sensitive to electrical interference. Using quantum mechanical phenomena, computers could be much more powerful than their...

University of Cambridge The realization of quantum networks is one of the major challenges of modern physics. Now, new research shows how high-quality photons can be generated from 'solid-state' chips, bringing us closer to the quantum 'internet'. The number of transistors on a microprocessor continues to double every two years, amazingly holding firm to a prediction by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore almost 50 years ago. If this is to continue, conceptual and technical advances...

AlphaGalileo Not only do optical fibers transmit information every day around the world at the speed of light, but they can also be harnessed for the transport of quantum information. In the current issue of Nature Photonics, a research team of Innsbruck physicists led by Rainer Blatt and Tracy Northup report how they have directly transferred the quantum information stored in an atom onto a particle of light. Such information could then be sent over optical fiber to a distant atom....

Griffith Uni researchers lead light breakthrough Research physicists have demonstrated the first device capable of amplifying the information in a single particle of light without adding noise. The research collaboration, involving Griffith University, The University of Queensland and University of Science and Technology of China, was able to amplify the noisy quantum state of a single photon subjected to loss, without adding noise in the process; in fact, their amplification reduced...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A research team led by the University of Vienna has developed a new method for entangling single photons that gyrate in opposite directions. This is the first step towards entangling and twisting even macroscopic, spatially separated objects in two different directions, according to the team. The findings of this study have been published in the journal Science. Quantum physics is the theory of lightweight objects such as atoms or...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online An international team of researchers, including physicists from the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, has achieved quantum teleportation over a record distance of 143 kilometers. The experiment marks a major step towards satellite-based quantum communication. The team transmitted quantum states between the two Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife over a distance of 143 kilometers, beating the previous...