Grand challenges for physics in the US
Experts identify the most pressing problems in physics today
Leonard Mandel and Ugo Fano die
The physics community loses two luminaries in as many weeks
Playing stop and go with light
Light brought to a halt in ultracold gas could be used in quantum computation
Joseph Weber 1919 – 2000
In the late 1950s, Weber became intrigued by the relationship between gravitational theory and laboratory experiments. His book, General Relativity and Gravitational Radiation, was published in 1961, ...
Quantum theory beats diffraction limit
Computer chips are made using a process called optical lithography, in which light traces out patterns on a photosensitive substrate covering the silicon. The problem for chipmakers who want to make e...
Quantum computers think big
The Innsbruck model relies on ions stored in an array of microtraps. Because the microtraps can be fabricated in a solid state device, thousands of traps can be put into an array. The internal quantum...
Quantum leap for entanglement
Most methods for generating entangled states rely on selecting the entangled pairs, for instance, from a large number of other non-entangled particles. However, last year Klaus Mølmer and Anders ...
New phase for quantum computers
One of the biggest challenges in quantum computation is to built “fault tolerant” logic gates. In the mid-1990s it was shown that this requires the time evolution of a quantum sub-system t...
The decay route to teleportation
In quantum teleportation the quantum state of an object held by “Alice” is instantaneously sent to “Bob”. The new technique works by having two optical cavities that both conta...
Bi-directional laser breakthrough
Light is emitted from a quantum cascade laser when an electron falls from an excited energy level in a quantum well to a lower level. The quantum wells are defined by alternating layers of semiconduct...
