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Category: quantum physics

Catching light in air: Programmable Mie voids boost light matter interaction

Atomically thin semiconductors such as tungsten disulfide (WS2) are promising materials for future photonic technologies. Despite being only a single layer of atoms thick, they host tightly bound excitons—pairs of electrons and holes that interact strongly with light—and can efficiently generate new colors of light through nonlinear optical processes such as second-harmonic generation.

These properties make them attractive for quantum optics, sensing, and on-chip light sources. At the same time, their extreme thinness imposes a basic limitation: There is very little material for light to interact with. As a result, emission and frequency conversion are often weak unless the surrounding photonic environment is carefully engineered.

A study published in Advanced Photonics introduces a new way to address this challenge by reshaping not the two-dimensional material itself, but the space beneath it. The researchers demonstrate a hybrid platform in which a monolayer of WS2 is placed on top of nanoscale air cavities, known as Mie voids, carved into a high-index crystal of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3). The work shows that these voids can strongly enhance light emission and nonlinear optical signals, while also allowing direct visualization of localized optical modes.

Quantum dynamics show ‘memory’ depends on whether states or observables evolve

An international group of researchers have investigated the role of memory in quantum systems and dynamics. Their findings show that a quantum process can appear memoryless from one perspective while retaining memory from another. The discovery opens new research avenues into quantum systems and technologies.

In classical physics, the concept of memory is well understood. If the future evolution of a system depends only on its present state, the process is said to be memoryless. On the other hand, if past states continue to influence future outcomes, the system has memory.

In quantum physics, however, this clarity has long been missing. Quantum systems can store and transmit information in ways that have no classical analog, and the act of measurement plays a fundamental role in the dynamics.

Heavier hydrogen makes silicon T centers shine brighter for quantum networks

Quantum technologies, computers or other devices that operate leveraging quantum mechanical effects, rely on the precise control of light and matter. Over the past decades, quantum physicists and material scientists have been trying to identify systems that can reliably generate photons (i.e., light particles) and could thus be used to create quantum technologies.

One approach for generating photons relies on silicon color centers, such as the emerging T center. Color centers are defects or irregularities in the crystal structure of silicon characterized by a different arrangement of atoms.

The T center and other silicon color centers can emit light in the wavelength band that is already used by fiber-optic internet cables, which is desirable for the development of quantum networks and quantum communication systems.

Why Reality Is Just Information | Leonard Susskind

Have you ever felt like the world around you isn’t exactly… “real”? Modern physics is starting to suggest something incredible: The universe isn’t made of atoms, energy, or particles. It is made of Information. In this video, we explore the radical “It from Bit” theory and the Holographic Principle. From the mysterious paradoxes of Black Holes and Hawking Radiation to the way quantum entanglement might actually create the fabric of space and time, we dive deep into the mind-bending reality of quantum mechanics. In this video, we cover: Why Stephen Hawking conceded the Black Hole Information Paradox. The Ryu-Takayanagi formula: How entanglement builds geometry. Why 3D space might just be a 2D holographic projection. The “It from Bit” philosophy by John Wheeler. How consciousness relates to Integrated Information Theory (IIT). If reality is just a pattern of qubits in a vast Hilbert space, what does that make us? Join us as we deconstruct the material world and look at the “source code” of the universe. #QuantumPhysics #HolographicUniverse #ItFromBit #TheoreticalPhysics #ScienceDocumentary #SpaceTime #quantuminformation

Controllable deterministic quantum teleportation of multiple sideband qumodes

As an important quantum communication protocol, quantum teleportation has broad applications in quantum information science and technology. For the application, it is essential to enhance the ability of quantum teleportation by teleporting multiple quantum states simultaneously. Here, we experimentally demonstrate deterministic quantum teleportation of multiple sideband qumodes of coherent states, which corresponds to teleporting multiple quantum states simultaneously, with the assistance of continuous-variable (CV) quantum entanglement. By fine-tuning the phases of two classical channels according to different adjustable frequencies, we successfully realize deterministic CV quantum teleportation with up to 5 sideband qumodes simultaneously within the frequency bandwidth of 24 MHz.

Physicist: I Believe You Can Enhance Your Consciousness—And Expand Your Perception Into a “Different Realm”

But what if our biological makeup limits how creative we can be? Maybe the timing of the clock that governs our introspections forces our intuitive periods—or the times of uncertainty—to be too brief. Could we use our quantum technologies to extend the wavelike processing inside our brains? I am here inspired by Aldous Huxley, who suggested in his famous book, The Doors of Perception, that drugs could alter our consciousness, revealing true reality. But rather than using drugs, I envision quantum chips designed to suppress the “noise” that induces introspection, allowing a longer interference period for our intuitive thoughts to develop. This has the potential to be far more potent than what Huxley could ever have imagined.

For my idea to work, we would first have to understand where and how these superpositions are stored and manipulated in the brain. The British physicist Roger Penrose, PhD, has speculated that this occurs within microtubules, which are dynamic, hollow, rod-like components of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton that are responsible for things such as intercellular transport. Despite some circumstantial evidence, we do not have a strong reason to believe that microtubules are capable of quantum interference, but they are certainly worth further investigation. Once we understand how our brain uses quantum effects, we could then design a quantum chip that interfaces with the relevant biological components. Theoretically, the device would be able to upload superposition states to store them for longer periods and shield them from collapse, helping us to enhance our creative wavelike thinking.

One wonders what kind of power would be unleashed by doing this. I imagine the change would not be purely quantitative, so that we merely become faster calculators or quicker problem solvers, although even that would be amazing. Instead, I think the change could be qualitative, expanding our perception into a completely different realm, effectively creating a new species. We might theoretically become more powerful than modern humans, just as we currently are with respect to other apes. Quantum-enhanced humans would see further domains of reality that would otherwise remain hidden forever from us ordinary humans.

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