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Category: quantum physics – Page 3

Laser processes to enable robust, miniaturized beam sources for quantum technology

In the HiPEQ project, a consortium of industry and research partners has developed new laser-based approaches to enable miniaturized, robust beam sources for quantum technology. Among others, the consortium also used lasers to grow novel optical insulator crystals. The project achieved significant progress from November 2021 to July 2025. Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen played a key role by co-developing the laser processes needed.

Currently, beam sources for quantum technology applications are often complex, large, and not robust enough for field use. What is needed, then, are miniaturized systems that are as versatile as possible. The BMFTR-funded project “HiPEQ—Highly Integrated PIC-Based ECDLs for Quantum Technology” has developed such a beam source.

Coordinated by TOPTICA, later a systems integrator, a consortium of industry and research partners has built prototypes of two miniaturized laser sources. With external dimensions of just 22 × 9 x 6 cm³, they provide enough space for all system components. The design can also be adapted to other wavelengths, making them suitable for a wide range of quantum technology applications.

Commercial Space Economy: Space Stations, Space Data Centers, and NASA

Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau, authors of Space to Grow, explain the commercial space economy and the role of NASA, Artemis, commercial space stations, space-based data centers, Starlink, GPS, China’s space program, national security, and space governance.

The conversation covers how governments, private companies, and investors build, fund, regulate, and compete in space, from microgravity research and launch markets to lunar exploration, space resources, and the economics of commercial space.

We also try and re-write the Space Treaty and look at the politics of the space race.

Please enjoy the show.

Thinking on Paper is a technology podcast about AI, Space, quantum computing, science, and the systems shaping the future.

🏠 Buy us a beer on Substack: https://thinkingonpaperpodcast.substa… Take us with you on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00volKq… 🎧 Remember steve jobs on APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast… 📺 Get the clips and outtakes on Instagram / thinkingonpaperpodcast — Links & Resources Matthew: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/pro… Brendan: linkedin.com/in/brendan-rosseau Buy Space To Grow: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/ite… — Chapters 00:00 Setting The Scene 03:35 Microgravity 07:43 Economic Incentives 12:14 Political Cycles 17:09 International Collaboration 18:45 National Security in Space 21:36 Space Exploration 24:27 A Day Without Space 28:49 Space Investment 30:37 Space-Based Data Centers 33:40 Space Resources 38:26 Governance in Space 40:55 A New Space Treaty.

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Schrödinger’s clock: Time could tick faster and slower at the same time

Time might be even stranger than Einstein imagined. Physicists are now exploring the possibility that a single clock could exist in a quantum superposition, ticking both faster and slower at the same time — almost like Schrödinger’s cat being both alive and dead simultaneously. Using incredibly precise atomic clocks and cutting-edge quantum technologies, researchers believe they may soon be able to test this bizarre prediction in the lab for the first time.

Twisted WSe₂ reveals elusive charge-neutral quantum modes

Quantum materials, materials with properties that are influenced by the laws of quantum mechanics, have attracted considerable attention over the past few decades. Their unique properties make these materials advantageous for the development of numerous cutting-edge technologies, including quantum computers, highly sensitive sensors and energy-efficient electronics.

In some quantum materials, electrons strongly interact with each other, producing what are known as correlated quantum phases, states in which the behavior of individual electrons is influenced by the behavior of other electrons. These phases can give rise to desirable properties or effects, including superconductivity, magnetism and collective excitations.

Researchers at University at California at Santa Barbara recently observed charge-neutral propagating collective spin-valley modes, coordinated waves of quantum behavior that carry no electrical charge and are difficult to probe experimentally, in the two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor twisted tungsten diselenide (WSe2).

Prototype sets record for optical quantum information technology

Chinese scientists have developed a programmable quantum computing prototype called Jiuzhang 4.0 that has set a new world record for optical quantum information technology, according to a study published May 13 in the journal Nature.

Led by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), the team used the prototype to solve the Gaussian boson sampling problem at a speed more than 1054 times that of the world’s most powerful supercomputer, the study said.

The researchers said they manipulated and detected quantum states of up to 3,050 photons —a significant leap from the 255 photons achieved with the previous Jiuzhang 3.0.

Roadmap charts three paths to room-temperature quantum materials for cooler computing

Imagine a laptop that never gets hot, a phone that holds its charge for days, or a computer memory chip designed to permanently retain data, even when the power goes out. This is the possibility sitting inside a remarkable family of materials that a team of researchers from the University of Ottawa and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has spent years trying to understand, and they just published a comprehensive roadmap of the field to date in the journal Newton.

Magnetic topological materials sit at the crossroads of magnetism and topology in modern physics. Topology is the mathematical study of shapes that cannot be continuously deformed into one another. In these materials, that idea protects the flow of electrons in a way that normal materials simply cannot.

“Magnetic topological materials offer a unique platform where magnetism and quantum physics work together in ways we are only beginning to fully understand,” explains Hang Chi, Canada Research Chair in Quantum Electronic Devices and Circuits and Assistant Professor at uOttawa’s Department of Physics. “This review brings together the field’s most significant advances and gives researchers a shared foundation to build on.”

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