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Ultrafast scanning tunneling microscopy reaches the quantum mechanical space-time limit for the first time

Werner Heisenberg’s famous uncertainty principle describes one of the most intriguing features of quantum physics: certain pairs of physical quantities describing a particle, such as position and momentum, cannot simultaneously be determined with arbitrary precision—not because of imprecise measuring instruments, but because nature forbids it. Between position and time, however, there is no Heisenberg uncertainty […]

Synchronized infrared lasers control molecular shape changes and expose hidden fingerprints

Researchers from the Molecular Physics and Physical Chemistry departments of the Fritz Haber Institute have shown how two highly synchronized infrared (IR) laser beams can control molecules as they switch between different structural conformations. Their study provides a new window into how molecules rearrange themselves during chemical reactions, offering fundamental insights into the microscopic processes […]

Single ion maps 3D electromagnetic fields above chips with record sensitivity

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a method that uses a single ion to detect electromagnetic fields above a surface and to create a three-dimensional map of them. In the future, this approach can be used to improve chips for quantum computers and quantum sensors.

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Orbitronics clears key hurdle with direct orbital currents, boosting signals 100-fold

Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are the first to directly utilize orbital currents without the need for conversion of the orbital current into a spin current.

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Diffractive networks enable optical information transfer through random and unknown diffusers

The transmission of optical information through random scattering media is a major challenge in optics, biomedical imaging, telecommunications and remote sensing. When light passes through a turbid or diffusive medium, such as biological tissue or a randomly structured optical material, the original image information can be severely distorted, making reliable recovery difficult.

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Spontaneous current loops in a kagome metal point to hidden quantum order

Quantum materials, materials exhibiting physical behavior governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, have proved promising for the development of numerous advanced technologies, including quantum technologies, memory devices and solar panels. In some of these materials, electrons can collectively arrange themselves in unusual patterns, giving rise to states that cannot be explained by classical physics […]

Quantum properties of multimode light observed despite extreme losses

Quantum properties of light are extremely delicate. When researchers attempt to measure them, even small losses on the way to a detector can make them invisible, limiting their use outside carefully controlled environments. A collaborative team of researchers involving scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) has shown a new […]

Quantum gravity tests may mistake ordinary spacetime for superposition

Everything around us, from atoms and molecules to planets and galaxies, is governed by two extraordinarily successful theories of physics: quantum mechanics and gravity. Quantum mechanics explains the behavior of the microscopic world, while Einstein’s theory of gravity describes the motion of stars, black holes and the expansion of the universe. Yet despite their successes, […]

Analog gravity advance offers new insights into Hawking radiation from black holes

Hawking radiation is a form of radiation emitted by black holes, as theoretically predicted by Stephen Hawking. It suggests that black holes do not merely swallow matter—as had previously been assumed—but also emit very faint radiation themselves. This radiation has not yet been observed in space; instead, researchers use models in the laboratory that mimic […]

Quantum semiconductor design could expand search for dark matter

Dark matter accounts for 85% of the matter in the universe, but scientists still do not know what it is made of. A study, published in Physical Review Letters, by Rice University researchers proposes a detector design that could help search for axions, hypothetical particles that many physicists think could make up dark matter.

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Quantum computer simulates hadronization, reproducing string breaking with 104 qubits

By remotely accessing an IBM quantum computer, a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has successfully simulated a key process in particle physics: hadronization. Although based on a simplified model of quantum mechanics, the project lays the groundwork for how physicists can leverage the power of quantum computers to make large scientific calculations beyond […]

Physicists demonstrate Hong–Ou–Mandel interference with more than 10 atoms

In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers have demonstrated the Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) effect with up to 12 indistinguishable neutral atoms—an effect that has been predominantly observed in photonic systems.

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Plutonium compound unlocks rare topological quantum behavior with potential nuclear science applications

Plutonium is one of the most complex elements in the periodic table. First synthesized and isolated in 1940 by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, plutonium has been studied closely for more than eight decades. It’s most often associated with its role in nuclear security, but it’s also vital to nuclear power, where it […]

Disorder creates direction-dependent optics in compound semiconductors

An international research team has demonstrated that the intrinsic disorder of the compound semiconductor CuInSnS₄ can be exploited to influence its optical properties. While the atomic vibrations also sense the local disorder, their response is averaged over many different local environments and therefore appears isotropic, as expected for a cubic crystal.

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Graphene can hold multiple states of superconductivity, a new study finds

The ordinary graphite in pencil lead is proving to be surprisingly multifaceted at the microscale. In a study published in the journal Nature, MIT researchers report that a certain microscopic structure found in natural graphite can host multiple superconducting states. Superconductivity is an electronic state of matter in which electrons pair up and glide through […]