Trapped ions have previously only been entangled in one and the same laboratory. Now, teams led by Tracy Northup and Ben Lanyon from the University of Innsbruck have entangled two ions over a distance of 230 meters. The nodes of this network were housed in two labs at the Campus Technik to the west of Innsbruck, Austria. The experiment shows that trapped ions are a promising platform for future quantum networks that span cities and eventually continents. Trapped ions are…
Licenses awarded to make GESTRA ready for series production. Sensor specialist HENSOLDT has agreed to cooperate with the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Technology FHR with the aim of transforming the technology demonstrator GESTRA (German Experimental Space Surveillance and Tracking Radar) into a series-production ready, operationally deployable system called Custodian. To this end, HENSOLDT has acquired the necessary licenses from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and concluded a cooperation agreement. The prototype was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for High…
An Israeli first: One of world’s most advanced satellite observatories. The Center for Quantum Science and Technology at Tel Aviv University has built the first ground station in Israel – and among the most advanced in the world – for tracking, sensing, hyperspectral imaging, and optical and quantum communication with satellites in orbit around the Earth. The station includes a satellite observatory dome with a diameter of 4.25 meters, a tracking system, a primary high-speed camera and secondary tracking cameras,…
Drones are operating increasingly in areas out of sight of the person controlling them. However, conventional remote controls have a limited range, which makes them unsuitable for these flights. On the other hand, simple mobile network-based systems have so far been unable to guarantee a reliable connection when mobile network loads are high or where there is a lack of network coverage. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI have joined forces with partners in the SUCOM project…
Some of the most exciting topics in modern physics, such as high-temperature superconductors and some proposals for quantum computers, come down to the exotic things that happen when these systems hover between two quantum states. Unfortunately, understanding what’s happening at those points, known as quantum critical points, has proved challenging. The math is frequently too hard to solve, and today’s computers are not always up to the task of simulating what happens, especially in systems with any appreciable number of…
Commercial aviation uses radar technology in their air traffic control systems to guarantee safe and smooth flights everywhere. For the AKIRA project, Fraunhofer researchers have teamed up with industry partners to develop a novel ground-based radar platform to take the same monitoring capabilities to the world of unmanned aviation. Their vision is one of secure passenger and cargo flights with automated drones in the skies above Germany’s urban centers. Starting on 28 February, a special two-day workshop on »Drone Technology…
… paves the way for efficient quantum computers. The method, developed by University of Rochester scientists, overcomes the limitations of electron spin resonance. Quantum science has the potential to revolutionize modern technology with more efficient computers, communication, and sensing devices. Challenges remain in achieving these technological goals, however, including how to precisely manipulate information in quantum systems. In a paper published in Nature Physics, a group of researchers from the University of Rochester, including John Nichol, an associate professor of physics, outlines a new method…
The development of stimuli-responsive polymers has brought about a wealth of material-related opportunities for next-generation small-scale, wirelessly controlled soft-bodied robots. For some time now, engineers have known how to use these materials to make small robots that can walk, swim and jump. So far, no one has been able to make them fly. Researchers of the Light Robots group at Tampere University are now researching how to make smart material fly. Hao Zeng, Academy Research Fellow and the group leader,…
TUD startup teaches robots to feel. Robotics has evolved at an unprecedented rate over the past several decades. Yet many robots remain inflexible, cumbersome and noisy. Now, the TU Dresden spin-off PowerON seeks to change that. It aims to break down the barrier between humans and robots. The next generation of robotics will feature sensory skins, fabricated muscles and artificial neurons printed on flexible materials, opening up new fields of application. “We’re observing a drastic upward trend in automation across…
In a new breakthrough, researchers at the University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with Ruhr University Bochum, have solved a problem that has caused quantum researchers headaches for years. The researchers can now control two quantum light sources rather than one. Trivial as it may seem to those uninitiated in quantum, this colossal breakthrough allows researchers to create a phenomenon known as quantum mechanical entanglement. This in turn, opens new doors for companies and others to exploit the technology commercially. Going…
Researchers find ways to improve the storage time of quantum information in a spin rich material. An international team of scientists have demonstrated a leap in preserving the quantum coherence of quantum dot spin qubits as part of the global push for practical quantum networks and quantum computers. These technologies will be transformative to a broad range of industries and research efforts: from the security of information transfer, through the search for materials and chemicals with novel properties, to measurements…
New error-detection method takes advantage of the way quantum information is scrambled. In quantum computers and other experimental quantum systems, information spreads around the devices and quickly becomes scrambled like dice in a game of Boggle. This scrambling process happens as the basic units of the system, called qubits (like computer bits only quantum) become entangled with one another; entanglement is a phenomenon in quantum physics where particles link up with each other and remain connected even though they are not in…
Microchip fab plants in the United States can cram billions of data processing transistors onto a tiny silicon chip, but a critical device, in essence a “clock,” to time the operation of those transistors must be made separately – creating a weak point in chip security and the supply line. A new approach uses commercial chip fab materials and techniques to fabricate specialized transistors that serve as the building block of this timing device, addressing the weak point and enabling…
Civil aviation is committed to making progress on the road towards a climate-neutral future. To make current and future aircrafts more energy-efficient and use less jet fuel, the industry needs reliable data about the durability of materials and aerodynamics in actual flight. Researchers at Fraunhofer IZM are working on behalf of Airbus Central C&T to show how sensors could be integrated in the outer shell of aircraft fuselage to achieve robust and reliable measurements even in the tough conditions in…
The Moody Lab develops a new method for on-chip generation of single photon. As buzz grows ever louder over the future of quantum, researchers everywhere are working overtime to discover how best to unlock the promise of super-positioned, entangled, tunneling or otherwise ready-for-primetime quantum particles, the ability of which to occur in two states at once could vastly expand power and efficiency in many applications. Developmentally, however, quantum devices today are “about where the computer was in the 1950s,” which…
Much recent research has focused on ‘topological’ materials – an intriguing type of solids which fall outside the standard classification into insulators and conductors. While their bulk is insulating, these phases are characterized by electrically conducting channels which appear at their edges. These resulting so-called topological phases are expected to play an important role in the future development of stable IT and large-scale quantum computing devices. Topological phases are not restricted to electronic systems. They can also occur in magnetic…
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