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Intuition-Defying Quantum Interactions Help Organisms Gather Light to Fuel Growth

Sophisticated recent experiments with ultrashort laser pulses support the idea that intuition-defying quantum interactions between molecules help plants, algae, and some bacteria efficiently gather light to fuel their growth. But key details of nature's vital light-harvesting mechanisms remain obscure, and the exact role that quantum physics may play in understanding them is more subtle than was once thought, according to an Overview Article in the January issue of BioScience.

9 Dec 2013

Nonlinear Light-Generating Zero-Index Metamaterial Holds Promise for Quantum Computing

The Information Age will get a major upgrade with the arrival of quantum processors many times faster and more powerful than today's supercomputers.

6 Dec 2013

Quantum Effects in Plasmonic Aluminum Stronger When in the Form of Nanomatryushkas

Humble aluminum’s plasmonic properties may make it far more valuable than gold and silver for certain applications, according to new research by Rice University scientists.

4 Dec 2013

Photon Pairs Produced Through Four-Wave Mixing in Cold Atomic Vapour

Quantum technologies for communication and computation can play on the strengths of different systems: photons are good for zipping information around, atoms are good for storage. CQT researchers have demonstrated a technique for producing entangled photon pairs that promises to help interface the two.

3 Dec 2013

Innovative Research on Cavity Optomechanics and Optical Frequency Combs Wins ICO Prize 2013

Tobias Kippenberg has received the 2013 International Commission for Optics (ICO) prize, an important international award presented each year to an outstanding researcher under the age of 40 in the field of optics.

29 Nov 2013

Quantum Matter Waves Made of Rubidium Atoms Controlled to Mimic Magnets

Magnets have fascinated mankind for millenia. From the Greek philosophers to scientists of the modern era, which saw the rise of quantum mechanics, magnets have been pondered and investigated.

28 Nov 2013

Rice University Researchers Report Superfluorescent Bursts from Quantum Wells

Spontaneous bursts of light from a solid block illuminate the unusual way interacting quantum particles behave when they are driven far from equilibrium. The discovery by Rice University scientists of a way to trigger these flashes may lead to new telecommunications equipment and other devices that transmit signals at picosecond speeds.

26 Nov 2013

Researchers Exploit Decay to Create Entanglement of Atomic Systems

Usually, when researchers work with quantum information, they do everything they can to prevent the information from decaying. Now researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, have flipped things around and are exploiting the decay to create the so-called entanglement of atomic systems, which is the foundation for quantum information processing. The results are published in the scientific journal, Nature.

25 Nov 2013

NIST Experiment Shows How Quantum Computing Can Benefit from Lost Data

Suggesting that quantum computers might benefit from losing some data, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have entangled—linked the quantum properties of—two ions by leaking judiciously chosen information to the environment.

25 Nov 2013

Quantum Cowboy Teaches Physics on 1,000 Acre Farm

On 1,000 acres of verdant grass and dirt trails 35 miles north of Bryan and strewn with some 200 cows and calves, world-renowned Texas A&M University quantum physicist Marlan Scully is cultivating a vision befitting his nickname, "the Quantum Cowboy" -- a farm where he combines cutting-edge laser research with student teaching, from the latest in science to more efficient farming.

22 Nov 2013