Topology in optics and photonics has been a hot topic since 1890 where singularities in electromagnetic fields have been considered. The recent award of the Nobel prize for topology developments in condensed matter physics has led to renewed surge in topology in optics with most recent developments in implementing condensed matter particle-like topological structures in photonics. Recently, topological photonics, especially the topological electromagnetic pulses, hold promise for nontrivial wave-matter interactions and provide additional degrees of freedom for information and energy…

Most of us control light all the time without even thinking about it, usually in mundane ways: we don a pair of sunglasses and put on sunscreen, and close—or open—our window blinds. But the control of light can also come in high-tech forms. The screen of the computer, tablet, or phone on which you are reading this is one example. Another is telecommunications, which controls light to create signals that carry data along fiber-optic cables. Scientists also use high-tech methods…

The demonstration that 2D heterostructures can be tuned electrically provides new perspectives for quantum simulation. Exploring the properties and behaviours of strongly interacting quantum particles is one of the frontiers of modern physics. Not only are there major open problems that await solutions, some of them since decades (think high-​temperature superconductivity). Equally important, there are various regimes of quantum many-​body physics that remain essentially inaccessible with current analytical and numerical tools. For these cases in particular, experimental platforms are sought…

Light offers an irreplaceable way to interact with our universe. It can travel across galactic distances and collide with our atmosphere, creating a shower of particles that tell a story of past astronomical events. Here on earth, controlling light lets us send data from one side of the planet to the other. Given its broad utility, it’s no surprise that light plays a critical role in enabling 21st century quantum information applications. For example, scientists use laser light to precisely control…

Integrated photonics allow us to build compact, portable, low-power chip-scale optical systems used in commercial products, revolutionizing today’s optical datacenters and communications. But integrating on-chip optical gain elements to build lasers or to amplify optical power runs the risk of reflected light from other components compromising or interfering with the laser’s performance. The solution is to increase on-chip optical isolation. Typically, optical isolation is achieved with magnetic materials and magnetic fields, but these are not compatible with current semiconductor foundry…

Scientists from Skoltech, Philips Research, and Goethe University Frankfurt have trained a neural network to detect anomalies in medical images to assist physicians in sifting through countless scans in search of pathologies. Reported in ​​IEEE Access, the new method is adapted to the nature of medical imaging and is more successful in spotting abnormalities than general-purpose solutions. Image anomaly detection is a task that comes up in data analysis in many industries. Medical scans, however, pose a particular challenge. It is way…

New study elucidates fundamental enigma of topological insulators. They are regarded as one of the most interesting materials for future electronics: Topological insulators conduct electricity in a special way and hold the promise of novel circuits and faster mobile communications. Under the leadership of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), a research team from Germany, Spain and Russia has now unravelled a fundamental property of this new class of materials: How exactly do the electrons in the material respond when they are…

Princeton-led study links magic-angle graphene and high-temperature superconductivity. The discovery in 2018 of superconductivity in two single-atom-thick layers of graphene stacked at a precise angle of 1.1 degrees (called ‘magic’-angle twisted bilayer graphene) came as a big surprise to the scientific community. Since the discovery, physicists have asked whether magic graphene’s superconductivity can be understood using existing theory, or whether fundamentally new approaches are required – such as those being marshalled to understand the mysterious ceramic compound that superconducts at…

The WASA detector at GSI/FAIR… With the WASA detector, a very special instrument is currently being set up at GSI/FAIR. Together with the fragment separator FRS, it will be used to produce and study so-called hypernuclei during the upcoming experiment period of FAIR Phase 0 in 2022. For this purpose, the assembly, which weighs several tons, is being transferred to the facility in a complex installation procedure. The scientific relevance of the planned experiments with hypernuclei is also shown by…

New filters could benefit data communication, quantum information processing and optical neural networks. Researchers report the development of frequency translating add/drop filters based on electro-optically modulated photonic molecules. The new class of filters could open important new avenues for on-chip light manipulation. Hayk Gevorgyan from Boston University, USA will present the research at the Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science Conference (FiO LS) all-virtual meeting, 01 – 04 November 2021. Gevorgyan’s presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, 02 November at 16:30 EDT (UTC…

It doesn’t get more accurate than this! Measuring air humidity is important in many areas. However, conventional sensors in hygrometers have so far not been able to determine a very low water vapor content. Physicists at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and the Yuri Gagarin Technical University in Russia have now developed a new sensor. It detects even the smallest amounts of water molecules that sink to its surface. The detector is based on highly conductive materials known as MXenes….

A team of physicists from Germany and Sweden working with first author Jens Christian Grauer from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has examined a special system of colloidal particles that they activated using laser light. The researchers discovered that self-propelling droplets, which they have named ‘droploids’, formed which contain the particles as an internal motor. They describe these droploids in more detail in the latest edition of the journal Nature Communications. According to an age-old saying, the whole is often…

Novel theorem demonstrates convolutional neural networks can always be trained on quantum computers, overcoming threat of ‘barren plateaus’ in optimization problems. Convolutional neural networks running on quantum computers have generated significant buzz for their potential to analyze quantum data better than classical computers can. While a fundamental solvability problem known as “barren plateaus” has limited the application of these neural networks for large data sets, new research overcomes that Achilles heel with a rigorous proof that guarantees scalability. “The way…

Astronomers have used a planet-hunting satellite to see a white dwarf abruptly switching on and off for the first time. The researchers led by Durham University, UK, used NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to observe the unique phenomenon. White dwarfs are what most stars become after they have burned off the hydrogen that fuels them. They are approximately the size of the Earth, but have a mass closer to that of the Sun. The white dwarf observed by the…

The central principle of superconductivity is that electrons form pairs. But can they also condense into foursomes? Recent findings have suggested they can, and a physicist at KTH Royal Institute of Technology today published the first experimental evidence of this quadrupling effect and the mechanism by which this state of matter occurs. Reporting today in Nature Physics, Professor Egor Babaev and collaborators presented evidence of fermion quadrupling in a series of experimental measurements on the iron-based material, Ba1−xKxFe2As2. The results…

Mount Sinai study suggests a new self-learning algorithm may detect blood pumping problems by reading electrocardiograms. A special artificial intelligence (AI)-based computer algorithm created by Mount Sinai researchers was able to learn how to identify subtle changes in electrocardiograms (also known as ECGs or EKGs) to predict whether a patient was experiencing heart failure. “We showed that deep-learning algorithms can recognize blood pumping problems on both sides of the heart from ECG waveform data,” said Benjamin S. Glicksberg, PhD, Assistant…