In recent years, many physicists worldwide have introduced atomic clocks, systems to measure the passing of time that are based on quantum states of atoms. These clocks can have numerous valuable applications, for instance in the development of satellite and...
Optics & Photonics
The modulation of a single-molecule electron source using light
Researchers at University of Tokyo, JTS PRESTO, Ludwig Maximilians Universität and Kindai University recently demonstrated the modulation of an electron source by applying laser light to a single fullerene molecule. Their study, featured in Physical Review...
The Floquet engineering of quantum materials
Quantum materials are materials with unique electronic, magnetic or optical properties, which are underpinned by the behavior of electrons at a quantum mechanical level. Studies have showed that interactions between these materials and strong laser fields can elicit...
Whispering gallery modes with fractional optical angular momentum in photonic crystal micro-rings
Whispering gallery modes, a type of wave that can travel around concave surfaces, have proved to be promising for the development of new technologies, particularly in photonics. Due to geometrical limitations, in circularly symmetric optical microresonators (i.e.,...
A new method to enable efficient interactions between photons
Photons, particles that represent a quantum of light, have shown great potential for the development of new quantum technologies. More specifically, physicists have been exploring the possibility of creating photonic qubits (quantum units of information) that can be...
Study sets new constraints on dark photons using a new dielectric optical haloscope
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Perimeter Institute recently set new constraints on dark photons, which are hypothetical particles and renowned dark matter candidates. Their...
Controlling non-classical mechanical states in a phononic waveguide architecture
Most quantum computing technologies rely on the ability to produce, manipulate and detect non-classical states of light. Non-classical states are quantum states that cannot directly be produced using conventional sources of light, such as lamps and lasers, and can...
The formation of gap solitons in a 1D dissipative topological lattice
Topological photonics is a rapidly evolving area of research that focuses on the design of photonic lattices where the behavior of light is inspired from the physics of topological insulators. While most studies in this area presented photonic systems with linear...
Using laser technology to measure the rotational cooling of molecular ions colliding with electrons
When it is free in cold space, a molecule will spontaneously cool down by slowing its rotation and losing rotational energy in quantum transitions. Physicists have shown that this rotational cooling process can be accelerated, slowed down and even inverted by the...
Study achieves the optical coherent manipulation of circular Rydberg states
Rydberg atoms are excited atoms that contain one or more electrons with a high principal quantum number. Due to their large size, long-range dipole-dipole interactions and strong coupling to external fields, these atoms have proved to be promising systems for the...