Honeycombs of Light: Topology at Room Temperature
Topological phases usually hide inside cryostats. Superconducting circuits, ultracold atoms, laser pulses: all of them shield quantum order from thermal noise.
A Light Trap: How to Catch the Elusive
For the quantum internet, we need to learn how to hold light — much like mail is sorted at intermediate nodes. The technology is based on a thin crystal plate doped with europium ions, a rare-earth element that, incidentally, is responsible for the red glow of smartphone screens.
Quantum Microscope Sees What Ordinary Light Can't
Light in a microscope doesn't arrive as a steady stream but like buckshot from a bag: sometimes more photons, sometimes fewer. This random scatter is the shot noise. It sets a limit: faint signals from tiny objects get lost in the ripple.
Scientists have found a way to calm this buckshot.
Black Phosphorus Trapped in Light
Infrared light is invisible to the eye, but it's everywhere: from TV remotes to the heat of the human body. Catching it requires special materials. Conventional detectors are bulky, rigid, and not easily tuned to specific wavelengths.
Chemistry Without a Magnet: Spectra at Zero Field
A substance's spectrum is its fingerprint. Usually, to record one, you place the sample in a strong magnetic field, like in an MRI scanner. But there is a way to do without a magnet altogether: detect the signal from atomic nuclei at zero field. Until now, this method suffered from poor sensitivity, and its complex spectra were hard to predict.