In a development that could greatly help the study of quantum phenomena, scientists have created a theoretical model for a new form of light that combines the properties of photons and electrons. If turned into reality, the new light form could also be used to make electrical circuits which at present use electrons for conduction.

Scientists from Imperial College London published a study in the journal Nature Communications on Friday that shows “it is possible to create a new form of light by binding light to a single electron, combining the properties of both,” according to a statement issued by the college.

Light, which is made up of photons, usually interacts with a large number of electrons on the surface of whatever material it comes in contact with. For the study, researchers from Imperial used “a recently discovered class of materials known as topological inhibitors.” Combining that with “theoretical physics to model the behavior of light,” they found that light could interact with only one electron on the surface.

In approaches using conventional semiconductor materials, scientists typically created qubits in the form of individual electrons. However, this caused dephesing, and the information carriers were difficult to program and read. Now, researchers from the University of Basel, Ruhr University Bochum, and the Universite de Lyon have overcome this problem by using holes — instead of electrons — to create qubits.

A new type of quantum bit | university of basel.