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New chip offers way to make use of quantum system 'imperfections'

Quantum technologies promise powerful new kinds of computers, giving scientists new tools to mimic and explore nature at its tiniest scales. At those levels, everything in nature—from atoms and electrons to light itself—follows ...

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 ...

Sunlight-powered generation of correlated photon pairs

Pairs of correlated or entangled photons are a foundational resource in quantum optics. They are most commonly produced through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), a nonlinear optical process that typically relies ...

Seeing the invisible: The limits of two-photon vision

Near-infrared light is invisible to humans. And yet, under the right conditions, the human eye can perceive it. Researchers from Poland's International Center for Translational Eye Research (ICTER) have now shown that the ...

Atoms vibrate on circular paths—with an unexpected twist

An international team of researchers, including scientists from HZDR and Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, for the first time directly observed how angular momentum is transferred and conserved within a crystal ...

Giving X-ray vision a sense of direction

Whether in tooth enamel or in nanomaterials made of silicon, the orientation of tiny internal structures often determines the properties of a material. A new X-ray method can even make this nano-order visible when the structures ...

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Condensed Matter
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Optics & Photonics
LED light unlocks 3D optical fingerprints inside materials without lasers
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Hologram technology where 'light becomes the key' enables hard-to-copy security
Optics & Photonics
Quantum geometry applied to light-based systems expands toolkit for topological photonics
Condensed Matter
Inexpensive material compresses light, paving the way for photonic microcircuits in the terahertz range
Optics & Photonics
Physicists have measured 'negative time' in the lab
Optics & Photonics
A longstanding quantum roadblock just fell, opening existing fiber networks to ultra-secure light signals
Optics & Photonics
Light unlocks full polarization control at ultrafast speeds, reshaping photonics
Optics & Photonics
XXP instrument back online, marking a key milestone in high-energy upgrade to SLAC's X-ray laser
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Optics & Photonics
Light-responsive hydrogels enable fast and precise control of soft materials
Optics & Photonics
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Optics & Photonics
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Optics & Photonics
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Condensed Matter
A mechanical blue LED: Stretching GaN shifts light from UV to blue without changing chemistry
Optics & Photonics
Team develops modulator for compact photonic integrated circuits
Optics & Photonics
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Forbidden friends become former friends after moms voice disapproval
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Lab fish cycles are hours out of sync with natural ones, researchers discover
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How face-building genes get ready early: Genome folding may prime crucial DNA switches
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Could future Mars settlers print their own tools?
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Sri Lanka teeth reveal rising plant diets thousands of years before agriculture
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A tiny detector for microwave photons could advance quantum tech

Detecting a single particle of light is hard; detecting a single microwave photon is even harder. Microwave photons, the tiny packets of electromagnetic radiation used in current technologies like Wi-Fi and radar, carry far ...

Compact flat-lens system can generate nondiffracting bottle beams

Most laser sources produce Gaussian beams that diverge as they propagate. This natural spreading limits their effectiveness in applications that require light to remain concentrated over long distances. To overcome this challenge, ...

Ultrafast quantum light pulses measured for the first time

Researchers at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology have, for the first time, measured the temporal duration of individual pulses of an extraordinary form of quantum light known as bright squeezed vacuum (BSV). Their ...