Category Physics

Electrotunable nanoplasmonic liquid mirror. Nature Materials, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nmat4969

By finely tuning the distance between nanoparticles in a single layer, researchers have made a filter that can change between a mirror and a window. The development could help scientists create special materials whose optical properties can be changed in real time. These materials could then be used for applications from tuneable optical filters to miniature chemical sensors. Creating a ‘tuneable’ material has been a challenge because of the tiny scales involved. In order to tune the optical properties of a single layer of nanoparticles – which are only tens of nanometres in size each – the space between them needs to be set precisely and uniformly.

To form the layer, the team from Imperial College Lo...

Artist’s representation of Faraon’s quantum memory device. Credit: Ella Maru Studio

Smallest-yet optical quantum memory device is a storage medium for optical quantum networks with the potential to be scaled up for commercial use. For the first time, an international team led by engineers at Caltech has developed a computer chip with nanoscale optical quantum memory. Quantum memory stores information on individual quantum particles – in this case, photons of light.

This allows it to take advantage of the peculiar features of quantum mechanics (such as superposition, in which a quantum element can exist in two distinct states simultaneously) to store data more efficiently and securely...

A property of NV centers in diamond is that the states of their electron spins can be determined from the photons they emit. Placing a system of this kind between two mirrors can considerably improve the rate and yield of emitted photons. As a result, key conditions are met for using NV centers in quantum technology applications. Credit: University of Basel, Department of Physics

Scientists have succeeded in dramatically improving the quality of individual photons generated by a quantum system and have put a 10-year-old theoretical prediction into practice. They have taken an important step towards future applications in quantum information technology. For a number of years, scientists have been working on using electron spins to store and process information...

Schematic of a quantum network: single photons transmit quantum information between the network nodes, where they are stored in an atomic gas. (Illustration: University of Basel, Department of Physics)

Physicists from the University of Basel have developed a memory that can store photons. These quantum particles travel at the speed of light and are thus suitable for high-speed data transfer. The researchers were able to store them in an atomic vapor and read them out again later without altering their quantum mechanical properties too much. This memory technology is simple and fast and it could find application in a future quantum Internet.

Even today, fast data transfer in telecommunication networks employs short light pulses...