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Physicists achieve first-ever ‘quadsqueezing’ quantum interaction

Researchers at the University of Oxford have demonstrated a new type of quantum interaction using a single trapped ion. By creating and controlling increasingly complex forms of “squeezing” – including a fourth-order effect known as quadsqueezing – the team has, for the first time, made previously unreachable quantum effects experimentally accessible.

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Physicists have measured ‘negative time’ in the lab

As Homer tells us, Odysseus made an epic journey, against the odds, from Troy to his home in Ithaca. He visited many lands, but mostly dwelt with the nymph Calypso on her island. We can imagine that his wife, Penelope, would have asked him about that particular time. Odysseus might have replied, “It was nothing. […]

A longstanding quantum roadblock just fell, opening existing fiber networks to ultra-secure light signals

Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have broken a longstanding barrier by managing to send single photons—that can’t be copied or split and thus are secure—in the network of optical fibers we already have. This opens up a broad range of applications relying on secure quantum information. The research is published in the journal Nature […]

Measurement of nuclear reactions at record-low energies opens new pathways for astrophysics research

An international research team has achieved an important milestone for astrophysics at GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt: In the CRYRING@ESR storage ring, scientists were able to measure nuclear reactions at extremely low energies for the first time, mirroring the conditions inside stars. This novel experimental approach lays the foundation for decoding the formation of elements in the […]

Light unlocks full polarization control at ultrafast speeds, reshaping photonics

Scientists at Heriot‑Watt University have demonstrated in a world-first, that light can be used to control every aspect of how electromagnetic waves oscillate, opening new technological frontiers. Researchers working in photonics, the science of light, have discovered a new way to control “polarization,” a key property of light that plays a crucial role in the […]

Sudden quantum jolts may not break adiabatic behavior after all

In thermodynamics, an “adiabatic process” is a system change that transfers no heat in or out of the system. Any and all energy change in that system are therefore accomplished by doing work on the system, work being action that moves matter over a distance. (An example is a bicycle tire pump or lifting a […]

Laser-plasma accelerators can preserve polarization of Helium-3 ions

Particle accelerators such as those at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva are typically highly complex large-scale devices. In these ring-shaped facilities, which are often several kilometers in length, magnets and radio-frequency cavities are used to accelerate elementary particles. An alternative approach is now emerging: compact laser–plasma accelerators that can be built […]

Quantum computing’s next dark horse emerges from a frozen surface, where almost nothing behaves as expected

Quantum bits (qubits) are the fundamental building blocks of quantum information processing. A novel qubit platform invented at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory exhibits noise levels thousands of times lower than those of most traditional qubits. “Noise” refers to disturbances in the environment that diminish a qubit’s performance. The platform was […]

XXP instrument back online, marking a key milestone in high-energy upgrade to SLAC’s X-ray laser

XPP, the X-ray Pump Probe instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), is back online and welcoming researchers after a complete rebuild. The overhaul has readied XPP for the significant increase in X-ray output expected from the ongoing high-energy upgrade to LCLS at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. LCLS is a […]

Room-temperature multiferroic could pave way to low-energy computing

A team of researchers at Rice University has engineered a new version of a well-known multiferroic that exhibits orders of magnitude higher performance at room temperature than its parent material. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes a modified version of bismuth ferrite that shows a 10-fold increase in […]

Frozen-in gravity: A new way to understand the evolution of spacetime dynamics

The concept of spacetime, first described in Einstein’s theory of general relativity, has since been widely studied by many physicists worldwide. Spacetime is described mathematically as a four-dimensional (4D) continuum in which physical events occur, which merges three-dimensional (3D) space, with one-dimensional (1D) time.

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Tokamak regime sustains stable fusion plasma for one minute while easing heat loads

For the first time, a research team has demonstrated, in a metal-wall environment, a plasma regime that simultaneously achieves partial divertor detachment, an edge-localized-mode (ELM)-free high-confinement mode (H-mode), and high pedestal performance. This integrated regime was sustained on a minute scale and the work is published in Physical Review Letters.

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Tiny flexible lasers enable force sensing inside living cells

Researchers have developed tiny flexible lasers that can be used to measure forces inside living cells. The new lasers could help illuminate various biological processes, including those involved in early development and tumor progression.

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A new era for ultrafast photonics: 2D mercury-acetylide frameworks for near-infrared nonlinear optics

In the increasingly digital world, the demand for faster, more efficient and miniaturized optical devices is ever-growing. From high-speed internet and secure quantum communications to advanced medical imaging and precision manufacturing, the backbone of these technologies is light, specifically how we can control and manipulate it at the nanoscale.

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Spintronics at BESSY II: Real-time analysis of magnetic bilayer systems

Spintronic devices enable data processing with significantly lower energy consumption. They are based on the interaction between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers. Now, a team from Freie Universität Berlin, HZB and Uppsala University has succeeded in tracking—separately for each layer—how the magnetic order changes after a short laser pulse has excited the system. The researchers were […]