Lifeboat Foundation

Quantum mechanics dictates that particles like atoms should also be thought of as waves and that technically we can build ‘atom lasers’ containing coherent waves of matter. The problem comes in making these matter waves last, so that they may be used in practical applications.

Now, a team of Amsterdam physicists has shown that this is indeed possible with some manipulation of the concept that underlies the atom laser, the so-called Bose-Einstein Condensate, or BEC for short, according to a press release published on June 10.

Nature Electronics volume 6, page 337 (2023) Cite this article.

Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and collaborators have succeeded in creating a “superlattice” of semiconductor quantum dots that can behave like a metal, potentially imparting exciting new properties to this popular class of materials.

Semiconducting colloidal quantum dots have garnered tremendous research interest due to their special optical properties, which arise from the quantum confinement effect. They are used in solar cells, where they can improve the efficiency of energy conversion, biological imaging, where they can be used as fluorescent probes, electronic displays, and even quantum computing, where their ability to trap and manipulate individual electrons can be exploited.

However, getting semiconductor quantum dots to efficiently conduct electricity has been a major challenge, impeding their full use. This is primarily due to their lack of orientational order in assemblies. According to Satria Zulkarnaen Bisri, lead researcher on the project, “making them metallic would enable, for example, quantum dot displays that are brighter yet use less energy than current devices.”

Researchers have developed a quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on integrated photonics that can transmit secure keys at unprecedented speeds. The proof-of-principle experiments represent an important step toward real-world application of this highly secure communication method.

QKD is a well-established method of providing secret keys for secure communication between distant parties. By using the quantum properties of light to generate secure random keys for encrypting and decrypting data, its security is based on the laws of physics, rather than computational complexity like today’s communication protocols.

“A key goal for QKD technology is the ability to simply integrate it into a real-world communications network,” said research team member Rebecka Sax from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. “An important and necessary step toward this goal is the use of integrated photonics, which allows optical systems to be manufactured using the same semiconductor technology used to make silicon computer chips.”

Plants pass energy along paths similar to those of a Bose-Einstein condensate, showing quantum properties at macroscopic scales.

Every color, every flash, every sunray exacts a toll on the light-sensitive tissues at the back of our eyes, producing toxic materials that risk damaging the very cells that allow us to see.

Thankfully, the pigment responsible for darkening our hair, skin, and eyes moonlights as a clean-up crew, mopping up one such dangerous compound before it accumulates into damaging clumps.

An investigation by researchers from the University of Tübingen in Germany and Yale University has revealed the removal process is somewhat unusual as far as biochemistry goes, relying upon a strange quirk of quantum-like behavior.

Alongside developing a quantum computer, one group of scientists is selling its components to other researchers.

We’ve probably all heard the phrase you can’t make something from nothing. But in reality, the physics of our universe isn’t that cut and dry. In fact, scientists have spent decades trying to force matter from absolutely nothing. And now, they’ve managed to prove that a theory first shared 70 years ago was correct, and we really can create matter out of absolutely nothing.

The universe is made up of several conservation laws. These laws govern energy, charge, momentum, and so on down the list. In the quest to fully understand these laws, scientists have spent decades trying to figure out how to create matter – a feat that is far more complex than it even sounds. We’ve previously turned matter invisible, but creating it out of nothing is another thing altogether.

There are many theories on how to create matter from nothing – especially as quantum physicists have tried to better understand the Big Bang and what could have caused it. We know that colliding two particles in empty space can sometimes cause additional particles to emerge. There are even theories that a strong enough electromagnetic field could create matter and antimatter out of nothing itself.

Using a high-speed “electron camera” at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and cutting-edge quantum simulations, scientists have directly imaged a photochemical “transition state,” a specific configuration of a molecule’s atoms determining the chemical outcome, during a ring-opening reaction in the molecule α-terpinene. This is the first time that scientists have precisely tracked molecular structure through a photochemical ring-opening reaction, triggered when light energy is absorbed by a substance’s molecules.

The results, published in Nature Communications, could further our understanding of similar reactions with vital roles in chemistry, such as the production of vitamin D in our bodies.

Transition states generally occur in chemical reactions which are triggered not by light but by heat. They are like a point of no return for molecules involved in a chemical reaction: As the molecules gain the energy needed to fuel the reaction, they rearrange themselves into a fleeting configuration before they complete their transformation into new molecules.