Quantum Tech
Superconducting qubits can function as quantum engines
Physicists have shown that superconducting circuits can function as piston-like mechanical quantum engines. The new perspective may help researchers design quantum computers and other devices with improved efficiencies. The physicists, Kewin Sachtleben, Kahio T. Mazon, and Luis G. C. Rego at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, Brazil, have published a paper on their work on superconducting qubits in a recent iss...
3D quantum gas atomic clock offers new dimensions in measurement
JILA physicists have created an entirely new design for an atomic clock, in which strontium atoms are packed into a tiny 3D cube at 1,000 times the density of previous 1D clocks. In doing so, they are the first to harness the ultra-controlled behavior of a so-called “quantum gas” to make a practical measurement device. With so many atoms completely immobilised in place, JILA’s cubic quantum gas clock sets a r...
Cost-effective quantum moves a step closer
Canadian and US researchers have taken an important step towards enabling quantum networks to be cost-effective and truly secure from attack. The experiments, by the team from the University of Calgary, the California Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Colorado, prove the viability of a measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (QKD) system, based on readily available hardware.
Equation unveils the characteristics of quantum chaos
Researchers have now succeeded in formulating a mathematical result that provides an exact answer to the question of how chaos actually behaves. The researchers have analysed chaotic states at the atomic level.
Quantum encryption performed in city for first time
For the first time, researchers have sent a quantum-secured message containing more than one bit of information per photon through the air above a city. The demonstration showed that it could one day be practical to use high-capacity, free-space quantum communication to create a highly secure link between ground-based networks and satellites, a requirement for creating a global quantum encryption network.
Entropy incorporates quantum fluctuation
Classical thermodynamics was born in the first half of the nineteenth century as a response to the industrial revolution’s need for optimised machines, engines and motors. It focused on calculating such quantities as useful work, dissipated energy and efficiency. According to the second law of thermodynamics, mechanical energy can be completely converted into thermal energy but thermal energy cannot be completely converted into mechanical e...
Single-photon emitter could change quantum info-processing
Los Alamos National Laboratory has produced the first known material capable of single-photon emission at room temperature and at telecommunications wavelengths. These carbon nanotube quantum light emitters may be important for optically-based quantum information processing and information security, while also being of significant interest for ultrasensitive sensing, metrology and imaging needs and as photon sources for fundamental advances in qu...
Finally a specific application for quantum computers
Science and the IT industry have high hopes for quantum computing, but descriptions of possible applications tend to be vague. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now come up with a concrete example that demonstrates what quantum computers will actually be able to achieve in the future.
Traditional mechanics controls quantum computers
An international team of researchers has now succeeded in extracting a fault tolerant manipulation of quanta from an effect of classical mechanics. The motion of a tennis racket in the air can help predict the behaviour of quanta. “Using an analogy from classical physics aids us in more efficiently designing and illustrating control elements for phenomena in the quantum world,” reports Stefan Glaser, professor in the Department o...
Achieving satellite-based quantum encryption network
In a new study, researchers demonstrate ground-based measurements of quantum states sent by a laser aboard a satellite 38,000 kilometers above Earth. This is the first time that quantum states have been measured so carefully from so far away. "We were quite surprised by how well the quantum states survived traveling through the atmospheric turbulence to a ground station," said Christoph Marquardt from the Max Planck Institute for the Science...