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Tiny device holds an unprecedented number of quantum units of information.

Scientists reported a single-atom energy-conversion quantum device operating as an engine, or a refrigerator, coupled to a quantum load.

UK startup Nu Quantum is breaking new ground in the quantum photonics space.

The next generation of the Internet will rely on revolutionary new tech. It will make unhackable networks real — and transmit information faster than the speed of light.

(Nanowerk News) Quantum technology holds great promise: Just a few years from now, quantum computers are expected to revolutionize database searches, AI systems, and computational simulations. Today already, quantum cryptography can guarantee absolutely secure data transfer, albeit with limitations. The greatest possible compatibility with our current silicon-based electronics will be a key advantage. And that is precisely where physicists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and TU Dresden have made remarkable progress: The team has designed a silicon-based light source to generate single photons that propagate well in glass fibers.

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BT and Toshiba have deployed an ‘unhackable’ quantum network that uses streams of photons to encrypt sensitive communications.

Continue reading “This ‘unhackable’ network uses the weird power of quantum physics” »

Technion researchers have developed accurate radiation sources that are expected to lead to breakthroughs in medical imaging and other areas. They have developed precise radiation sources that may replace the expensive and cumbersome facilities currently used for such tasks. The suggested apparatus produces controlled radiation with a narrow spectrum that can be tuned with high resolution, at a relatively low energy investment. The findings are likely to lead to breakthroughs in a variety of fields, including the analysis of chemicals and biological materials, medical imaging, X-ray equipment for security screening, and other uses of accurate X-ray sources.

Published in the journal Nature Photonics, the study was led by Professor Ido Kaminer and his master’s student Michael Shentcis as part of a collaboration with several research institutes at the Technion: the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Solid State Institute, the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), and the Helen Diller Center for Quantum Science, Matter and Engineering.

The researchers’ paper shows an experimental observation that provides the first proof-of-concept for theoretical models developed over the last decade in a series of constitutive articles. The first article on the subject also appeared in Nature Photonics. Written by Prof. Kaminer during his postdoc at MIT, under the supervision of Prof. Marin Soljacic and Prof. John Joannopoulos, that paper presented theoretically how two-dimensional materials can create X-rays. According to Prof. Kaminer, “that article marked the beginning of a journey towards radiation sources based on the unique physics of two-dimensional materials and their various combinations—heterostructures. We have built on the theoretical breakthrough from that article to develop a series of follow-up articles, and now, we are excited to announce the first experimental observation on the creation of X-ray radiation from such materials, while precisely controlling the radiation parameters.”

Scientists have created a device which could make it easier to harness super-fast quantum computers for real-world applications, a team at Finland’s Aalto University said on Wednesday.

Quantum computers are a new generation of machines powered by energy transfers between so-called “artificial atoms”—electrical circuits a fraction of a millimetre across.

Scientists believe the devices will eventually be able to vastly outperform even the world’s most powerful conventional supercomputers.

The ability to handle single molecules as effectively as macroscopic building blocks would enable the construction of complex supramolecular structures inaccessible to self-assembly. The fundamental challenges obstructing this goal are the uncontrolled variability and poor observability of atomic-scale conformations. Here, we present a strategy to work around both obstacles and demonstrate autonomous robotic nanofabrication by manipulating single molecules. Our approach uses reinforcement learning (RL), which finds solution strategies even in the face of large uncertainty and sparse feedback. We demonstrate the potential of our RL approach by removing molecules autonomously with a scanning probe microscope from a supramolecular structure. Our RL agent reaches an excellent performance, enabling us to automate a task that previously had to be performed by a human. We anticipate that our work opens the way toward autonomous agents for the robotic construction of functional supramolecular structures with speed, precision, and perseverance beyond our current capabilities.

The swift development of quantum technologies could be further advanced if we managed to free ourselves from the imperatives of crystal growth and self-assembly and learned to fabricate custom-built metastable structures on atomic and molecular length scales routinely (1–7). Metastable structures, apart from being more abundant than stable ones, tend to offer attractive functionalities, because their constituent building blocks can be arranged more freely and in particular in desired functional relationships (7).

It is well established that single molecules can be manipulated and arranged using mechanical, optical, or magnetic actuators (8), such as the tips of scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) (9–12) or optical tweezers (13, 14). With all these types of actuators, a sequence of manipulation steps can be carried out to bring a system of molecular building blocks into a desired target state. The problem of creating custom-built structures from single molecules can therefore be cast as a challenge in robotics.