Quantum Tech

A NASA technologist has teamed with the inventor of a nanotechnology that could transform the way space scientists build spectrometers, the all-important device used by virtually all scientific disciplines to measure the properties of light emanating from astronomical objects, including Earth itself.

Quantum replicants of responsive systems can be more efficient than classical models, say researchers from the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore, because classical models have to store more past information than is necessary to simulate the future. They have published their findings in npj Quantum Information. The word 'replicant' evokes thoughts of a sci-fi world where society has replaced common creatures with artificial ma...

RJL Systems, a company based in Clinton Township, Michigan, launched last week the latest successor in their line of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) products, the Quantum V. The Michigan-based company, often considered the originators and chief innovators of BIA instrumentation for use in determining body composition, has regularly worked to advance their technology since the 1983 release of their initial FDA-cleared Class II medical devic...

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have cooled a mechanical object to a temperature lower than previously thought possible, below the so-called "quantum limit." The NIST theory and experiments, described in Nature, showed that a microscopic mechanical drum—a vibrating aluminum membrane—could be cooled to less than one-fifth of a single quantum, or packet of energy, lower than ordinarily p...

Researchers have developed a type of light-enhancing optical cavity that is only 200 nm tall and 100 nm across. Their new nanoscale system represents a step toward brighter single-photon sources, which could help propel quantum-based encryption and a truly secure and future-proofed network. Quantum encryption techniques, which are seen as likely to be central to future data encryption methods, use individual photons as an extremely secure wa...

For the first time, MIT physicists have observed a highly ordered crystal of electrons in a semiconducting material and documented its melting, much like ice thawing into water. The observations confirm a fundamental phase transition in quantum mechanics that was theoretically proposed more than 80 years ago but not experimentally documented until now.

An international collaboration between physicists at the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, McGill University, and the University of Konstanz recently demonstrated a framework for faster control of a quantum bit. First published online in Nature Physics, their experiments on a single electron in a diamond chip could create quantum devices that are less prone to errors when operated at high speeds.

An international team of scientists has succeeded in making further improvements to the lifetime of superconducting quantum circuits. An important prerequisite for the realisation of high-performance quantum computers is that the stored data should remain intact for as long as possible. The researchers, including Jülich physicist Dr. Gianluigi Catelani, have developed and tested a technique that removes unpaired electrons from the circuits. ...

Inside an exotic crystal, physicist Martin Mourigal has observed strong indications of “spooky” action, and lots of it. The results of his experiments would mean that the type of crystal is a rare material that can produce a quantum spin liquid. Currently, only a small handful of materials are believed to possibly have these properties. This crystal was synthesised for the first time only a year ago. Corroboration by other physic...

Researchers from Brown University have demonstrated an unusual method of putting the brakes on superconductivity, the ability of a material to conduct an electrical current with zero resistance. The research shows that weak magnetic fields—far weaker than those that normally interrupt superconductivity—can interact with defects in a material to create a "random gauge field," a kind of quantum obstacle course that generates r...