artificial atoms tagged posts

Patterned on a microchip and working in ambient conditions, the atoms could lead to rapid advancements in new quantum-based technology. By drilling holes into a thin two-dimensional sheet of hexagonal boron nitride with a gallium-focused ion beam, University of Oregon scientists have created artificial atoms that generate single photons.

The artificial atoms – which work in air and at room temperature – may be a big step in efforts to develop all-optical quantum computing, said UO physicist Benjamín J. Alemán, principal investigator of a study published in the journal Nano Letters.

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This illustration shows a qubit attached to a waveguide where light in the form of microwaves enters and exits. Credit: University of Waterloo

Researchers at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) recorded an interaction between light and matter 10X larger than previously seen. The strength of the interaction between photons and a qubit was so large that it opens the door to a realm of physics and applications unattainable until now. “We are enabling the investigation of light-matter interactions in a new domain in quantum optics,” said Pol Forn-Diaz, a postdoctoral fellow at IQC. “The possibilities are exciting because our circuit could potentially act as a quantum simulator to study other interesting quantum systems in nature.”

The ultrastrong coupling between...

Between two mirrors, the quantum dot filters the light beams with just one photon per package out of the laser, so that only packages with multiple photons remain. Credit: Leiden Institute of Physics

Leiden physicists have manipulated light with large artificial atoms, ie quantum dots. Before, this has only been accomplished with actual atoms. It is an important step toward light-based quantum technology. When you point a laser pointer at the screen during a presentation, an immense number of light particles races through the air at a billion km/hour. They don’t travel in a continuous flow, but in packages containing varying numbers of particles. Sometimes as many as 4 so-called photons pass by, and other times none at all...