ion traps tagged posts

Ion trap and two ions (top right). Credit: Image courtesy of Osaka University

Osaka University researchers have succeeded in observing at the intended timing two-phonon quantum interference by using 2 cold calcium ions in ion traps, which spatially confine charged particles. A phonon is a unit of vibrational energy that arises from oscillating particles within crystals. Two-particle quantum interference experiments using two photons or atoms have been previously reported, but this group’s achievement is the world’s first observation using two phonons.

This group demonstrated that the phonon, a quantum mechanical description of an elementary vibrational motion in matter, and the photon, an elementary particle of light, share common properties...