Quantum computing: Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, have improved the coherence time of a previously developed quantum membrane dramatically. The improvement will expand the usability of the membrane for a variety of different purposes. With a coherence time of one hundred milliseconds, the membrane can for example store sensitive quantum information for further processing in a quantum computer or network. The result has now been published in Nature Portfolio. The quantum drum is now connected to…

In medical care, magnetic fields of heart and brain activity are measured to detect diseases at an early stage. To measure even the smallest magnetic fields, researchers at Fraunhofer IAF are working on a new approach: diamond-based laser threshold magnetometry. The idea is to use diamond with a high density of nitrogen-vacancy centers in a laser system. Now the researchers have succeeded in reaching a milestone: They were able to demonstrate the world’s first measurement of magnetic-field-dependent stimulated emission and…

… paves the way for new quantum materials. New technique helps researchers understand unconventional superconductors. Superconductors are materials with no electrical resistance whatsoever, commonly requiring extremely low temperatures. They are used in a wide range of domains, from medical applications to a central role in quantum computers. Superconductivity is caused by specially linked pairs of electrons known as Cooper pairs. So far, the occurrence of Cooper pairs has been measured indirectly macroscopically in bulk, but a new technique developed by…

By 2045, all electricity in Germany should come from renewable sources. The problem is that wind and solar power do not provide a regular electricity supply, but rather fluctuate. As part of the Kopernikus project SynErgie, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA is working with partners to develop an energy synchronization platform which will allow industry to offset these fluctuations and synchronize production with power generation. The Fraunhofer IPA researchers are also currently developing the first electricity-saving…

At ILA in Berlin, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut will showcase space-qualified diode laser modules with narrow linewidths, optical frequency references and further III-V components for satellite and quantum technology applications. From June 22 to 24, 2022, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH) will present reliable semiconductors for applications in the fields of space, satellites and quantum technology at the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin. The institute covers the entire value chain – from chip design and processing to modules and systems….

Even though consumers won’t see it for years, researchers around the world are already laying the foundation for the next generation of wireless communications, 6G. An international team led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has developed components that will allow future devices to achieve increased speeds necessary for such a technological jump. In a new paper published in Nature Electronics, the researchers demonstrated new radio frequency switches that are responsible for keeping devices connected by jumping between…

The Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment has produced the most precise measurement yet of theta13, a key parameter for understanding how neutrinos change their “flavor”. Over nearly nine years, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment captured an unprecedented five and a half million interactions from subatomic particles called neutrinos. Now, the international team of physicists of the Daya Bay collaboration has reported the first result from the experiment’s full dataset—the most precise measurement yet of theta13, a key parameter for understanding…

In conventional wisdom, producing a curved space requires distortions, such as bending or stretching a flat space. A team of researchers at Purdue University have discovered a new method to create curved spaces that also solves a mystery in physics. Without any physical distortions of physical systems, the team has designed a scheme using non-Hermiticity, which exists in any systems coupled to environments, to create a hyperbolic surface and a variety of other prototypical curved spaces. “Our work may revolutionize…

Scientists have created the first ”time-crystal” two-body system in an experiment that seems to bend the laws of physics. It comes after the same team recently witnessed the first interaction of the new phase of matter. Time crystals were long believed to be impossible because they are made from atoms in never-ending motion. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, shows that not only can time crystals be created, but they have potential to be turned into useful devices. Time crystals…

Today, public cloud systems can be used for outsourcing computationally intensive applications and storing large amounts of data. However, these systems are not designed for millisecond-accurate control of machines in production environments. They are not freely configurable and are difficult to connect to real-time-capable networks. In contrast, companies can use local cloud systems to monitor their machines and plants and exchange sensor information. The hardware and software architecture of the Fraunhofer Edge Cloud will be showcased using various example applications…

Machine learning is playing an ever-increasing role in biomedical research. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now developed a new method of using molecular data to extract subtypes of illnesses. In the future, this method can help to support the study of larger patient groups. Nowadays doctors define and diagnose most diseases on the basis of symptoms. However, that does not necessarily mean that the illnesses of patients with similar symptoms will have identical causes or demonstrate…

For quantum computers to be useful in practice, errors must be detected and corrected. At the University of Innsbruck, Austria, a team of experimental physicists has now implemented a universal set of computational operations on fault-tolerant quantum bits for the first time, demonstrating how an algorithm can be programmed on a quantum computer so that errors do not spoil the result. In modern computers errors during processing and storage of information have become a rarity due to high-quality fabrication. However,…

… using a polarization-encoded diffractive network. Implementing large-scale linear transformations or matrix computations plays a pivotal role in modern information processing systems. Digital computer systems need to complete up to billions of matrix operations per second to perform complex computational tasks, such as training and inference for deep neural networks. As a result, the throughput of linear transform computations can directly influence the performance and capacity of the underlying computing systems. These linear transformations are computed using digital processors in…

Arizona State physicist uses intuition, supercomputers to identify new high-temperature superconductor. The study of superconductivity is littered with disappointments, dead-ends, and serendipitous discoveries, according to Antia Botana, professor of physics at Arizona State University. “As theorists, we generally fail in predicting new superconductors,” she said. However, in 2021, she experienced the highlight of her early career. Working with experimentalist Julia Mundy at Harvard University, she discovered a new superconducting material —a quintuple-layer nickelate. They reported their findings in Nature Materials in September 2021….

Researchers in Delft have succeeded in teleporting quantum information across a rudimentary network. Researchers in Delft have succeeded in teleporting quantum information across a rudimentary network. This first of its kind is an important step towards a future quantum Internet. This breakthrough was made possible by a greatly improved quantum memory and enhanced quality of the quantum links between the three nodes of the network. The researchers, working at QuTech—a collaboration between Delft University of Technology and the Netherlands Organisation…

With modular components and an easy-to-use 3D interface, this interactive design pipeline enables anyone to create their own customized robotic hand. MIT researchers have created an interactive design pipeline that streamlines and simplifies the process of crafting a customized robotic hand with tactile sensors. Typically, a robotics expert may spend months manually designing a custom manipulator, largely through trial-and-error. Each iteration could require new parts that must be designed and tested from scratch. By contrast, this new pipeline doesn’t require…