https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Quantum technologies, devices and systems that process, store, detect, or transfer information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, have the potential to outperform classical technologies in a variety of tasks. An ongoing quest within quantum engineering is the realization of a so-called quantum internet: a network conceptually analogous to today's internet, in which distant nodes are linked through shared quantum resources, most notably quantum entanglement. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ultra-thin-metasurface-generate-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 03 Feb 2026 07:50:05 EST news689252662 A team of researchers from the University of Stuttgart and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg led by Prof. Stefanie Barz (University of Stuttgart) has demonstrated a source of single photons that combines on-demand operation with record-high photon quality in the telecommunications C-band—a key step toward scalable photonic quantum computation and quantum communication. "The lack of a high-quality on-demand C-band photon source has been a major problem in quantum optics laboratories for over a decade—our new technology now removes this obstacle," says Prof. Stefanie Barz. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-photons-telecom-wavelengths-demand.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:59:49 EST news689003942 Some things are easier to achieve if you're not alone. As researchers from the University of Rostock, Germany have shown, this very human insight also applies to the most fundamental building blocks of nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-collaboration-elementary-particles-teamwork-photon.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:40:01 EST news688663613 Light and matter can remain at separate temperatures even while interacting with each other for long periods, according to new research that could help scale up an emerging quantum computing approach in which photons and atoms play a central role. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-insight-thermalization-advance-neutral-atom.html Condensed Matter Wed, 21 Jan 2026 15:39:41 EST news688232341 Quantum technologies are cutting-edge systems that can process, transfer, or store information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, particularly a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement. Entanglement entails a correlation between two or more distant particles, whereby measuring the state of one also defines the state of the others. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-electrically-powered-source-entangled-chip.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 20 Jan 2026 07:30:01 EST news688039318 Sum-frequency generation (SFG) is a powerful vibrational spectroscopy that can selectively probe molecular structures at surfaces and interfaces, but its spatial resolution has been limited to the micrometer scale by the diffraction limit of light. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-vibrational-spectroscopy-technique-enables-nanoscale.html Nanomaterials Mon, 19 Jan 2026 16:24:22 EST news688062242 Quantum computers could rapidly solve complex problems that would take the most powerful classical supercomputers decades to unravel. But they'll need to be large and stable enough to efficiently perform operations. To meet this challenge, researchers at MIT and elsewhere are developing quantum computers based on ultra-compact photonic chips. These chip-based systems offer a scalable alternative to some existing quantum computers, which rely on bulky optical equipment. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-efficient-cooling-method-enable-chip.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 15 Jan 2026 13:00:51 EST news687704387 Researchers at Kumamoto University have discovered that a purely inorganic crystal grown from water solution can emit circularly polarized light, a special form of light whose "handedness" distinguishes left from right. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-bulk-inorganic-crystals-grown-emit.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:33:27 EST news687623581 Researchers have designed a new device that can efficiently create multiple frequency-entangled photons, a feat that cannot be achieved with today's optical devices. The new approach could open a path to more powerful quantum communication and computing technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-quantum-dot-device-generate-multiple.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 13 Jan 2026 10:15:27 EST news687521701 Astronomers have employed the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) to observe a mysterious gamma-ray emitting source designated HESS J1857+026. Results of the observational campaign, published December 19 on the pre-print server arXiv, shed more light on the nature of this source. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-veritas-explores-nature-mysterious-gamma.html Astronomy Mon, 29 Dec 2025 08:00:01 EST news686204624 Tiny tubes of carbon that emit single photons from just one point along their length have been made in a deterministic manner by RIKEN researchers. Such carbon nanotubes could form the basis of future quantum technologies based on light. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-fabricating-photon-sources-carbon-nanotubes.html Nanophysics Thu, 25 Dec 2025 12:20:04 EST news685793946 Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, in collaboration with Huzhou University, discovered that the entanglement workhorse of most quantum optics laboratories can have hidden topologies, reporting the highest ever observed in any system: 48 dimensions with over 17,000 topological signatures, an enormous alphabet for encoding robust quantum information. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-conventional-entanglement-thousands-hidden-topologies.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 17 Dec 2025 12:23:28 EST news685196581 Stanford engineers debuted a new framework introducing computational tools and self-reflective AI assistants, potentially advancing fields like optical computing and astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-agentic-ai-platform-advanced-optics.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 15 Dec 2025 10:40:01 EST news685016703 A never-before-seen image of individual oxygen atoms dissolved in water has been captured. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-femtosecond-laser-technique-captures-elusive.html Analytical Chemistry Sun, 14 Dec 2025 14:00:01 EST news684831452 Over the past decades, engineers have introduced numerous technologies that rely on light and its underlying characteristics. These include photonic and quantum systems that could advance imaging, communication and information processing. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-optical-modulation-silicon-electron-avalanche.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 11 Dec 2025 08:40:01 EST news684579966 University of Iowa researchers have discovered a method to "purify" photons, an advance that could make optical quantum technologies more efficient and more secure. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-theoretical-results-faster-quantum-technology.html Quantum Physics Wed, 10 Dec 2025 15:23:44 EST news684602598 Integrated circuits are the brains behind modern electronic devices like computers or smart phones. Traditionally, these circuits—also known as chips—rely on electricity to process data. In recent years, scientists have turned their attention to photonic chips, which perform similar tasks using light instead of electricity to improve speed and energy efficiency. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-reconfigurable-platform-chip-photonic.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 08 Dec 2025 11:10:42 EST news684414542 Scientists at the Max Born Institute have developed a new soft X-ray instrument that can reveal dynamics of magnetic domains on nanometer length and picosecond time scales. By bringing capabilities once exclusive to X-ray free-electron lasers into the laboratory, the work paves the way for routine investigations of ultrafast processes of emergent textures in magnetic materials and beyond. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ultrafast-magnetic-domain-nanoscale-soft.html Condensed Matter Mon, 08 Dec 2025 10:02:26 EST news684410521 Researchers from the School of Physics at Wits University, working with collaborators from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, have demonstrated how quantum light can be engineered in space and time to create high-dimensional and multidimensional quantum states. Their work highlights how structured photons—light whose spatial, temporal or spectral properties are deliberately shaped—offer new pathways for high-capacity quantum communication and advanced quantum technologies. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-quantum-possibilities-future-technologies.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 05 Dec 2025 10:40:01 EST news684153016 An international research team involving Paderborn University has achieved a crucial breakthrough on the road to a quantum internet. For the first time ever, the polarization state of a single photon emitted from a quantum dot was successfully teleported to another physically separated quantum dot. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-photon-teleportation-distant-quantum-dots.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 02 Dec 2025 09:54:36 EST news683891641 Speed matters. When an X-ray photon excites an atom or ion, making a core electron jump onto a higher energy level, a short-lived window of opportunity opens. For just a few femtoseconds, before an electron fills the void in the lower energy level, a second photon has the chance to be absorbed by another core electron, creating a doubly excited state. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-rapid-ray-pulses-enable-efficiency.html Optics & Photonics Sat, 29 Nov 2025 11:20:01 EST news683554594 This week, researchers reported that weight and health markers may rebound when patients stop using some of the new hormonal gastric inhibitory polypeptide drugs. A prototype device can restore lost olfactory sense. And a new universal law predicts how brittle objects shatter. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-saturday-citations-cute-squid-scary.html Other Sat, 29 Nov 2025 09:00:01 EST news683552236 In the early 1930s, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed galaxies in space moving faster than their mass should allow, prompting him to infer the presence of some invisible scaffolding—dark matter—holding the galaxies together. Nearly 100 years later, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may have provided direct evidence of dark matter, allowing the invisible matter to be "seen" for the very first time. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-years-scientists-dark.html Astronomy Tue, 25 Nov 2025 18:00:02 EST news683202772 Machine learning models called convolutional neural networks (CNNs) power technologies like image recognition and language translation. A quantum counterpart—known as a quantum convolutional neural network (QCNN)—could process information more efficiently by using quantum states instead of classical bits. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-method-based-quantum-processors-neural.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:39:11 EST news683307547 Photonic quantum processors, devices that can process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects and particles of light (photons), have shown promise for numerous applications, ranging from computations and communications to the simulation of complex quantum systems. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-quantum-photonic-chip-emitting-molecules.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 24 Nov 2025 06:30:02 EST news682865851 In January, a team led by Jim Schuck, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia Engineering, developed a method for creating entangled photon pairs, a critical component of emerging quantum technologies, using a crystalline device just 3.4 micrometers thick. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-metasurfaces-etched-2d-crystals-boost.html Optics & Photonics Sat, 22 Nov 2025 05:50:01 EST news683012764 A German-French team of physicists from TU Dortmund University, University of Würzburg, and Le Mans Université has succeeded in launching shear hypersound pulses with exceptionally large amplitudes in metal halide perovskites using pulsed optical excitation. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-physicists-explore-optical-hypersound-pulses.html Condensed Matter Fri, 21 Nov 2025 11:20:02 EST news682944486 There are few technologies more fundamental to modern life than the ability to control light with precision. From fiber-optic communications to quantum sensors, the manipulation of photons underpins much of our digital infrastructure. Yet one capability has remained frustratingly out of reach: controlling light with light itself at the most fundamental level using single photons to switch or modulate powerful optical beams. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-photon-enable-photonic.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 21 Nov 2025 10:03:03 EST news682941747 In 1887, one of the most important experiments in the history of physics took place. American scientists Michelson and Morley failed to measure the speed of Earth by comparing the speed of light in the direction of Earth's motion with that perpendicular to it. That arguably most important zero measurement in the history of science led Einstein to postulate that the speed of light is constant and consequently to formulate his theory of special relativity. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-physicists-constancy-unprecedented-accuracy.html General Physics Wed, 19 Nov 2025 12:50:01 EST news682778406 Everyday life on the internet is insecure. Hackers can break into bank accounts or steal digital identities. Driven by AI, attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Quantum cryptography promises more effective protection. It makes communication secure against eavesdropping by relying on the laws of quantum physics. However, the path toward a quantum internet is still fraught with technical hurdles. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-quantum-teleportation-photons-distant-sources.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 18 Nov 2025 12:59:04 EST news682693141