Quantum dots breakthrough
Only two other methods have previously been used to manufacture quantum dots: electron beam lithography and epitaxy. Lithography is a top down approach in which the beam defines the dot pattern, where...
New angle for optical memories
The medium is made of nanocrystals of zinc sulphide doped with samarium. Although the nanocrystals are only 3 nanometres long, they clump together into larger particles to form a powder that can be us...
Read article: A double-slit experiment in a single molecule
A double-slit experiment in a single molecule
Photons from the laser can excite electrons in the water molecules into a so-called anti-bonding state. Molecules in this state can adopt one of two distorted shapes, both of which can dissociate into...
First for single-photon measurements
Photons are traditionally detected by converting their energy into an electric signal, which destroys the photon in the process. An additional problem in quantum measurements is that if one variable &...
Rolf Landauer, a unique physicist, dies
Landauer was born in Stuttgart in 1927 but had to leave Germany because his family was Jewish. He studied physics at Harvard University in the United States and joined IBM after two years at the Natio...
Optical computing moves forward
The pairs are created by illuminating a semiconductor quantum well with a pulsed laser diode. A slight voltage difference on the semiconductor keeps the electron and the hole in separate levels inside...
Putting the quantum brakes on light
Electromagnetically induced transparency relies on interference between different electronic transitions in an atom and has been used to make opaque media transparent at certain wavelengths in the pas...
Read article: Quantum solitons
Quantum solitons
Two of the most remarkable properties of light – squeezing and solitons – are being combined in a new generation of experiments that could revolutionize optics and communications
Macroscopic spin moves
James Kikkawa and David Awschalom of the University of California, Santa Barbara have now shown that they can use electric fields to transport electrons through a distance of 0.1 mm in gallium arsenid...