The revolutionary tech discoveries of the next few decades may come from new materials so small they make nanomaterials look like lumpy behemoths. These materials will be designed and refined at the picometer scale, which is a thousand times smaller than a nanometer. A new study moves picoscience in a new direction: taking elements from the periodic table and tinkering with them at the subatomic level to tease out new materials.
Read moreResearchers have built what they believe is 'the world's most efficient single-photon source.' And they are still improving it. With planned upgrades, the apparatus could generate upwards of 30 photons at unprecedented efficiencies. Sources of that caliber are precisely what's needed for optical quantum information applications.
Read moreScientists have found that the early universe, and the very first galaxies, would have looked very different depending on the nature of dark matter. For the first time, the team has simulated what early galaxy formation would have looked like if dark matter were ''fuzzy,'' rather than cold or warm.
Read moreNew research has simulated dark matter in a new way for the first time, disrupting conventional thinking about the make-up of the universe.
Read moreAccurately measuring frequencies of light is required for timekeeping and many science experiments and technologies. Frequency combs, invented in 2000, are used to complete these measurements. However, most of them are large and cumbersome. In 2009, researchers developed a way to make much smaller combs, but they came with their own challenges. New research finds that a novel way of generating frequency combs could address these challenges, leading to compact frequency combs with untold applications.
Read moreQuantum physics is difficult and explaining it even more so. Researchers have now tried to solve one of the biggest puzzles in quantum physics: How to measure the quantum system without changing it?
Read moreAccording to quantum physics, energy can be 'borrowed' — at least for some time. Energies lower than zero are possible, much like a bank account that can be overdrawn. There are, however, certain restrictions to that. Scientists have now shown that these restrictions are very fundamental properties of our universe and must be true for various possible quantum theories.
Read moreThe quantum superposition principle has been tested on a scale as never before in a new study. Hot, complex molecules composed of nearly two thousand atoms were brought into a quantum superposition and made to interfere. By confirming this phenomenon — 'the heart of quantum mechanics', in Richard Feynman's words — on a new mass scale, improved constraints on alternative theories to quantum mechanics have been placed.
Read morePhysicists have found a way to measure the elusive quantum phase of electrons. This enables a new, better view of important phenomena used in photosensors or photovoltaics.
Read moreAccording to Einstein, light consists of particles (photons) that transfer only quantized energy to the electron of the atom. If the photon's energy is sufficient, it knocks the electrons out of the atom. But what happens to the photon's momentum in this process? Physicists are now able to answer this question. To do so, they developed and constructed and new spectrometer with previously unattainable resolution.
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