Feature Channels: Quantum Mechanics

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The magnetic noise caused by adsorbed oxygen molecules is “eating at” the phase stability of quantum bits, mitigating the noise is vital for future quantum computers.

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A type of quantum dot that has been intensively studied in recent years can reproduce light in every colour and is very bright. An international research team including scientists from Empa has now discovered why this is the case. The quantum dots could someday be used in LEDs.

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Machine learning and neural networks are the foundation of artificial intelligence and image recognition, but now they offer a bridge to see and recognize exotic insulating phases in quantum materials.

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A revolutionary material harbors magnetism and massless electrons that travel near the speed of light—for future ultrasensitive, high-efficiency electronics and sensors.

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Observed atomic dynamics helps explain bizarre flow without friction that has been puzzling scientists for decades.

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Electrons are forced to the edge of the road on a thin sheet of tungsten ditelluride.

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Tulane University professor Michael Mislove will help develop cutting-edge technology related to quantum computing.

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Study identifies microbes to diagnose endometriosis without surgery; brain-inspired device can quickly classify data; neutrons “see” how water flows through fractured rock; new method could help with demand for electric vehicle charging stations; bio-based, shape-memory material could replace today’s conductors; novel approach for studying material’s magnetic behavior could boost quantum computing

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So far, the search for catalysts even better than transition metals has been largely based on trial and error, and on the assumption that catalyzed reactions take place on step edges and other atomic defect sites of the metal crystals. An international research team has combined experiments using advanced infrared techniques with quantum theory to explore methane dissociation reactions in minute detail. They report their findings this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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An Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led research team used a sophisticated X-ray scattering technique to visualize and quantify the movement of water molecules in space and time, which provides new insights that may open pathways for liquid-based electronics.

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A research team including Georgia Institute of Technology professor Martin Mourigal used neutron scattering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study copper elpasolite, a mineral that can be driven to an exotic magnetic state when subjected to very low temperatures and a high magnetic field.

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A dark exciton can store information in its spin state, analogous to how a regular, classical bit stores information in its off or on state, but dark excitons do not emit light, making it hard to determine their spins and use them for quantum information processing. In new experiments, however, researchers can read the spin states of dark excitons, and do it more efficiently than before. Their demonstration, described in APL Photonics, can help researchers scale up dark exciton systems to build larger devices for quantum computing.

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Lasers reveal a new state of matter—the first 3-D quantum liquid crystal.

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New, unexpected paradigm discovered: Disorder may actually promote an exotic quantum state, with potential for ultrafast computing.

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A quantum information scientist from the National University of Singapore has developed efficient “toolboxes” comprising theoretical tools and protocols for quantifying the security of high-speed quantum communication.

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Physicists at West Virginia University have discovered a way to control a newly discovered quantum particle, potentially leading to faster computers and other electronic devices.

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In quantum materials, periodic stripe patterns can be formed by electrons coupled with lattice distortions. To capture the extremely fast dynamics of how such atomic-scale stripes melt and form, Berkeley Lab scientists used femtosecond-scale laser pulses at terahertz frequencies. Along the way, they found some unexpected behavior.

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Lead trihalide perovskite nanocrystals are promising candidates as light sources. Coupling quantum emitters with nanophotonic cavities can significantly boost efficiency, but this approach has not been explored with these nanocrystals. Now, researchers have demonstrated a simple approach for coupling solution-synthesized cesium lead tribromide perovskite nanocrystals to silicon nitride photonic cavities. The resulting room temperature light emission is enhanced by an order of magnitude above what perovskites can emit alone. They report their results this week in Applied Physics Letters.

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In a breakthrough development, Los Alamos scientists have shown that they can successfully amplify light using electrically excited films of the chemically synthesized semiconductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots.

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A team of researchers from Penn State and Princeton University have taken a big step toward creating a diode laser from a hybrid organic-inorganic material that can be deposited from solution on a laboratory benchtop.

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Defect spins in diamond were controlled with a simpler, geometric method, leading to faster computing.

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A UW–Madison lab has made a molecule that gains magnetic strength through an unusual way of controlling those spins, which could lead to a breakthrough in quantam computing.

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Rural counties continue to rank lowest among counties across the U.S., in terms of health outcomes. A group of national organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National 4-H Council are leading the way to close the rural health gap.

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Scientists aren’t normally treated to fireworks when they discover something about the universe. But a team of University of Chicago researchers found a show waiting for them at the atomic level—along with a new form of quantum behavior that may someday be useful in quantum technology applications.

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Novel spin-polarized surface states may guide the search for materials that host Majorana fermions, unusual particles that act as their own antimatter, and could revolutionize quantum computers.

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When laser light is used to drive the motion of a thin, rigid membrane, the membrane vibrates in resonance with the light. The resulting patterns can be visualized through an array of quantum dots, where these tiny structures emit light at a frequency that responds to movement. The advance is reported this week in a cover article of Applied Physics Letters.

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Paige Kelley, a postdoctoral researcher with a joint appointment at the University of Tennessee and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is using neutrons to study specific crystal properties that could lead to the realization of a quantum spin liquid, a novel state of matter that may form the basis of future quantum computing technologies.

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DOE's Office of Science has awarded two research teams, each headed by a member of ORNL’s Quantum Information Science Group, more than $10 million over 5 years to both assess the feasibility of quantum architectures in addressing big science problems and to develop algorithms capable of harnessing the massive power predicted of quantum computing systems. The two projects are intended to work in concert to ensure synergy across DOE’s quantum computing research spectrum and maximize mutual benefits.

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Filling the universe with knots shortly after it popped into existence 13.8 billion years ago provides a neat explanation for why we inhabit a three-dimensional world. That is the basic idea advanced by an out-of-the-box theory developed by an international team of physicists.

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One of the secrets to making tiny laser devices such as opthalmic surgery scalpels work even more efficiently is the use of tiny semiconductor particles, called quantum dots. In new research at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Nanotech Team, the ~nanometer-sized dots are being doctored, or “doped,” with additional electrons, a treatment that nudges the dots ever closer to producing the desired laser light with less stimulation and energy loss.

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A new method that precisely measures the mysterious behavior and magnetic properties of electrons flowing across the surface of quantum materials could open a path to next-generation electronics. A team of scientists has developed an innovative microscopy technique to detect the spin of electrons in topological insulators, a new kind of quantum material that could be used in applications such as spintronics and quantum computing.

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UC Riverside physicists have developed a photodetector – a device that converts light into electrons – by combining two distinct inorganic materials and producing quantum mechanical processes that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected. The researchers stacked two atomic layers of tungsten diselenide on a single atomic layer of molybdenum diselenide. Such stacking results in properties vastly different from those of the parent layers, allowing for customized electronic engineering at the tiniest possible scale.

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A Columbia team has definitively observed an intensely studied anomaly in condensed matter physics—the even-denominator fractional quantum Hall  state—via transport measurement in bilayer graphene. “Observing the 5/2 state in any system is a remarkable scientific opportunity, since it encompasses some of the most perplexing concepts in modern condensed matter physics, such as emergence, quasi-particle formation, quantization, and even superconductivity …[It may have] great potential for real-world applications, particularly in quantum computing.” (Science)

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Light-activated nanoparticles, also known as quantum dots, can provide a crucial boost in effectiveness for antibiotic treatments used to combat drug-resistant superbugs such as E. coli and Salmonella, new University of Colorado Boulder research shows.

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Florida State University researchers found that the theory of quantum mechanics does not adequately explain how the heaviest and rarest elements found at the end of the table function. Instead, another well-known scientific theory — Albert Einstein’s famous Theory of Relativity — helps govern the behavior of the last 21 elements of the Periodic Table.

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In the journal Nature Physics, researchers report taking a first step toward controlling electrons’ behavior inside matter—and thus the first step down a long and complicated road that could eventually lead to the ability to create new states of matter at will.

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Two Berkeley Lab teams will receive DOE funding to develop near-term quantum computing platforms and tools to be used for scientific discovery in the chemical sciences. One team will develop novel algorithms, compiling techniques and scheduling tools, while the other team will design prototype four- and eight-qubit processors to compute these new algorithms.

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The potential for photon entanglement in quantum computing and communications has been known for decades. One issue impeding immediate application is that many photon entanglement platforms do not operate within the range used by most forms of telecommunication. Researchers have started to unravel the mysteries of entangled photons, demonstrating a new nanoscale technique that uses semiconductor quantum dots to bend photons to the wavelengths used by today’s popular C-band standards. They report their work in Applied Physics Letters.

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When a nitrogen atom is next to the space vacated by a carbon atom, it forms what is called a nitrogen-vacancy center. Now, researchers have shown how they can create more NV centers, which makes sensing magnetic fields easier, using a relatively simple method that can be done in many labs. They describe their results this week in Applied Physics Letters.

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For more than a decade, Jr-Shin Li has sought a better way for pulse design using the similarity between spins and springs by using numerical experiments.

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Ameren Missouri and Saint Louis University are partners on an innovative weather forecasting system called Quantum Weather that provides detailed severe weather information to improve energy restoration for customers during storms.

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In quantum mechanics particles can behave as waves and take many paths through an experiment, even when a classical marble could only take one of them at any time. However, it requires only combinations of pairs of paths, rather than three or more, to determine the probability for a particle to arrive somewhere. This principle is a consequence of Born’s rule, a cornerstone of quantum physics and any measured violation of it might hint at new physics. Now, researchers at the Universities of Vienna and Tel Aviv have addressed this question for the first time explicitly using the wave interference of large molecules behind various combinations of single, double, and triple slits. The analysis – published in the Journal ‘Science Advances’ – confirms the formalism of established quantum physics for massive particles.

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Qubitekk has non-exclusively licensed an Oak Ridge National Laboratory-developed method to produce quantum light particles, known as photons, in a controlled, deterministic manner that promises improved speed and security when sharing encrypted data.

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A recent discovery of a new magnetic semimetal could eventually lead to more energy-efficient computers, televisions, radios and other electronics.

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Scientists invented an approach to creating ordered patterns of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds, a promising approach to storing and computing quantum data.

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Researchers have performed the first ever quantum-mechanical simulation of the benchmark ultracold chemical reaction between potassium-rubidium and a potassium atom, opening the door to new controlled chemistry experiments.

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University of Arkansas physicists define new limits in optomechanical cooling to better help understand the quantum state

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A team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has used sophisticated neutron scattering techniques to detect an elusive quantum state known as the Higgs amplitude mode in a two-dimensional material.

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An international team led by the University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering has discovered how to manipulate a weird quantum interface between light and matter in silicon carbide along wavelengths used in telecommunications.