Quantum Physics

U. Innsbruck Research Opens up New Possibilities for Using Levitated Particles as Sensors

Sensing with levitated nanoparticles has so far been limited by the precision of position measurements. Researchers at the Department of Experimental Physics of the University of Innsbruck, Austria, have now demonstrated a new technique that boosts the efficiency with which the position of a sub-micron levitated object is detected. The new technique demonstrated by Tracy Northup, a professor at the University of Innsbruck, and her team resolves this limitation by replacing the laser beam with the light of the particle reflected by a mirror.

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Controlled for First Time, Quantum Phenomenon Could Suggest Avenues for Technology

University of Chicago scientists have been able to create a new kind of quantum object at will in the laboratory: “domain walls.” The discovery can help researchers better understand exotic quantum particles—and could suggest avenues for new technology in the future, such as quantum electronics or quantum memory… “It’s kind of like a sand dune in the desert—it’s made up of sand, but the dune acts like an object that behaves differently from individual grains of sand,” said Ph.D. student Kai-Xuan Yao, the first author of the study…

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Need Ultrafast Information Processing? Try Topological Materials for Ultrafast Spintronics

The laws of quantum physics rule the microcosm. They determine, for example, how easily electrons move through a crystal and thus whether the material is a metal, a semiconductor or an insulator. Quantum physics may lead to exotic properties in certain materials: In so-called topological insulators, only the electrons that can occupy some specific quantum states are free to move like massless particles on the surface, while this mobility is completely absent for electrons in the bulk.

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Need Ultrafast Information Processing? Try Topological Materials for Ultrafast Spintronics

The laws of quantum physics rule the microcosm. They determine, for example, how easily electrons move through a crystal and thus whether the material is a metal, a semiconductor or an insulator. Quantum physics may lead to exotic properties in certain materials: In so-called topological insulators, only the electrons that can occupy some specific quantum states are free to move like massless particles on the surface, while this mobility is completely absent for electrons in the bulk.

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