Researchers created customizable arrays of waveguides to establish synthetic modal dimensions for effective control of light in photonic systems, with implications spanning from mode lasing to quantum optics and data transmission. In the realm of physics, synthetic dimensions (SDs) have emerged as one of the frontiers of active research, offering a pathway to explore phenomena in higher-dimensional spaces, beyond our conventional 3D geometrical space. The concept has garnered significant attention, especially in topological photonics, due to its potential to unlock…
Excavation of caverns part of Fermilab’s Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. With excavation work complete at the site where four gigantic particle detectors for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be installed, scientists are preparing to begin construction on first detector. Part of that work is taking place at The University of Texas at Arlington. Located a mile below the surface at the Sanford Underground Research Laboratory in Lead, South Dakota, the three colossal caverns serve as the core of a…
In a recent publication in Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07094-9, researchers at the Max Born Institute (MBI) in Berlin, Germany, and at Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching report on a new technique for deciphering the properties of matter with light, that can simultaneously detect and precisely quantify many substances with a high chemical selectivity. Their technique interrogates the atoms and molecules in the ultraviolet spectral region at very feeble light levels. Using two optical frequency combs and a photon counter, the…
Jefferson Lab accelerator physicists to partner with national lab, university and industry colleagues for development of compact SRF accelerators for industrial settings. Superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) technology allows particle accelerators to efficiently produce powerful electron beams. Physicists use these beams to study the building blocks of matter at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. But these research machines also have a promising list of industrial applications. Now, some researchers are figuring out how to get SRF accelerators…
Thin film coating can be applied to magnesium alloys for aerospace and optics applications. Sometimes, seeing clearly requires complete black. For astronomy and precision optics, coating devices in black paint can cut down on stray light, enhancing images and boosting performance. For the most advanced telescopes and optical systems, every little bit matters, so their manufacturers seek out the blackest blacks to coat them. In the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University…
Launch of the project “CONDOR – Superconducting Spintronic Devices for Cryogenic Electronics”. The demand for electronics that operate at low temperatures is growing and becoming ever more important, especially for applications in the field of quantum computing technologies. This is the focus of the CONDOR project that was launched earlier this year. The Fraunhofer IPMS, Dresden and the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, Halle, are collaborating on innovative spin-based memory and logic components that operate at low temperatures. Electronics…
Argonne researchers have created a new device that acts like a superconductivity switch, helping boost the signal of tiny particles in particle colliders. Device could help facilitate the operation of new particle colliders, such as the Electron-Ion Collider. In particle colliders that reveal the hidden secrets of the tiniest constituents of our universe, minute particles leave behind extremely faint electrical traces when they are generated in enormous collisions. Some detectors in these facilities use superconductivity — a phenomenon in which…
Researchers visualize temperature-driven turbulence in liquid metal for the first time. Experiments with liquid metals could not only lead to exciting insights into geophysical and astrophysical flow phenomena, such as atmospheric disturbances at the rim of the sun or the flow in the Earth’s outer core, but also foster industrial applications, for example the casting of liquid steel. However, as liquid metals are non-transparent, suitable measurement techniques to visualize the flow in the entire volume are still lacking. A team…
…can bind together to form macroscopic complexes. Scientists from CNR Nanotec in Lecce and the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw used a new generation of semiconductor photonic gratings to optically tailor complexes of quantum droplets of light that became bound together into macroscopic coherent states. The research underpins a new method to simulate and explore interactions between artificial atoms in a highly reconfigurable manner, using optics. The results have been published in the prestigious journal “Nature Physics”…
A more efficient way to capture fresh water from the air could be inspired by a phenomenon of motion first glimpsed in bowls of breakfast cereal. KAUST researchers have observed that, when water droplets condense from the air onto a cold surface coated with oil, the droplets commence a complex dance.[1] This motion — akin to a process known as the Cheerios effect whereby the floating cereal tends to cluster due to surface tension — could help to speed up the…
Quantum mechanics tells us that the fundamental unit of charge is unbreakable – but exceptions exist. A research team led by the Paul Scherrer Institute has spectroscopically observed fractionalisation of electronic charge in an iron-based metallic ferromagnet. Experimental observation of the phenomenon is not only of fundamental importance. Since it appears in an alloy of common metals at accessible temperatures, it holds potential for future exploitation in electronic devices. The discovery is published in the journal Nature. Basic quantum mechanics…
Compact chips advance precision timing for communications, navigation and other applications. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its collaborators have delivered a small but mighty advancement in timing technology: compact chips that seamlessly convert light into microwaves. This chip could improve GPS, the quality of phone and internet connections, the accuracy of radar and sensing systems, and other technologies that rely on high-precision timing and communication. This technology reduces something known as timing jitter, which is small,…
NASA tool has the answer… It’s not hard to find out what NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes have observed in the past. Barely a week goes by without news of a cosmic discovery made possible using images, spectra, and other data captured by NASA’s prolific astronomical observatories. But what are Hubble and Webb looking at right this minute? A shadowy pillar harboring nascent stars? A pair of colliding galaxies? The atmosphere of a distant planet? Galactic light, stretched and distorted on a 13-billion-year journey…
Since more than a decade it has been possible for physicists to accurately measure the location of individual atoms to a precision of smaller than one thousandth of a millimeter using a special type of microscope. However, this method has so far only provided the x and y coordinates. Information on the vertical position of the atom is lacking. A new method has now been developed that can determine all three spatial coordinates of an atom with one single image….
LSU quantum researchers uncover important implications for quantum technology. In a recent publication in Nature Physics, the LSU Quantum Photonics Group offers fresh insights into the fundamental traits of surface plasmons, challenging the existing understanding. Based on experimental and theoretical investigations conducted in Associate Professor Omar Magaña-Loaiza’s laboratory, these novel findings mark a significant advancement in quantum plasmonics, possibly the most noteworthy in the past decade. While prior research in the field has predominantly focused on the collective behaviors of plasmonic systems, the…
Researchers image for the first time, winds from an old planet-forming disk which is actively dispersing its gas content. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is helping scientists uncover how planets form by advancing understanding of their birthplaces and the circumstellar disks surrounding young stars, in a paper published in the Astronomical Journal, a team of scientists led by Naman Bajaj of the University of Arizona and including Dr. Uma Gorti at the SETI Institute, image for the first time, winds…
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