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Category: quantum physics – Page 6

Researcher discusses trapping single atoms and putting them to work in emerging quantum technologies

Blink and you might miss it, but if you keep your eye on the monitors in professor Sebastian Will’s lab, you’ll catch a series of single-second flashes that light up the screen. Each flash is an atom of strontium, a naturally occurring alkaline-earth metal, being briefly captured and held in place by “tweezers” made of laser light. “We can see single atoms,” says graduate student Aaron Holman. “Seeing those never gets old.”

The lab saw its first atom at the end of 2022, after two years of constructing the experimental setup—a complicated and carefully calibrated series of atomic sources, vacuum chambers, magnets, electronics, and lasers that trap and place them into custom arrangements—from scratch.

Holman, currently a 5th-year Ph.D. student in Physics, helped build the “TweeSr” project, as it’s referred to in the lab, from the ground up. A pure atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physicist at heart, he’s now working on ways to turn fundamental research on how atoms, molecules, and light interact into new technologies with collaborators at Columbia Engineering. He’s also heading toward bigger scales as part of a that is currently under construction.

Engineers Build “Universal Translator” for Quantum Computers

Silicon breakthrough may provide the foundation for a global quantum internet. UBC researchers have proposed a solution to a major challenge in quantum networking: a device that can convert microwave signals to optical signals and back again. This technology could act as a universal translator

‘A first in applied physics’: Breakthrough quantum computer could consume 2,000 times less power than a supercomputer and solve problems 200 times faster

Scientists have built a compact physical qubit with built-in error correction, and now say it could be scaled into a 1,000-qubit machine that is small enough to fit inside a data center. They plan to release this machine in 2031.

Scientists develop new technique for capturing ultra-intense laser pulses in a single shot

Scientists at the University of Oxford have unveiled a pioneering method for capturing the full structure of ultra-intense laser pulses in a single measurement. The breakthrough, published in close collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, could revolutionize our ability to control light-matter interactions.

This would have transformative applications in many areas, including research into new forms of physics and realizing the extreme intensities required for fusion energy research. The results have been published in Nature Photonics.

Ultra-intense lasers can accelerate electrons to near-light speeds within a single oscillation (or ‘wave cycle’) of the , making them a powerful tool for studying extreme physics. However, their rapid fluctuations and complex structure make real-time measurements of their properties challenging.

Quantum simulation of chemical dynamics achieved for the first time

Researchers at the University of Sydney have successfully performed a quantum simulation of chemical dynamics with real molecules for the first time, marking a significant milestone in the application of quantum computing to chemistry and medicine.

Understanding in real time how atoms interact to form new compounds or interact with light has long been expected as a potential application of quantum technology. Now, quantum chemist Professor Ivan Kassal and Physics Horizon Fellow Dr Tingrei Tan, have shown it is possible using a quantum machine at the University of Sydney.

The innovative work leverages a novel, highly resource-efficient encoding scheme implemented on a trapped-ion quantum computer in the University of Sydney Nanoscience Hub, with implications that could help transform medicine, energy and materials science.

University of Sydney scientists have made a big step towards future design of treatments for skin cancer or improved sunscreen by modelling photoactive chemical dynamics with a quantum computer.