Research News

In new work, researchers at JQI have combined two lines of research into a new method for generating frequency combs.

Currently, computing technologies are rapidly evolving and reshaping how we imagine the future. Quantum computing is taking its first toddling steps toward delivering practical results that promise unprecedented abilities. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence remains in public conversation as it’s used for everything from writing business emails to generating bespoke images or songs from text prompts to producing deep fakes.

The world is a cluttered, noisy place, and the ability to effectively focus is a valuable skill. Researchers at JQI have identified a new way to focus their attention and obtain useful insights into the way information associated with a configuration of interacting particles gets dispersed and effectively lost over time. Their technique focuses on a single feature that describes how various amounts of energy can be held by different configurations a quantum system. The approach provides insight into how a collection of quantum particles can evolve without the researchers having to grapple with the intricacies of the interactions that make the system change over time.

Chip-based devices known as frequency combs, which measure the frequency of light waves with unparalleled precision, have revolutionized time keeping, the detection of planets outside of our solar system and high-speed optical communication.
Now, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their collaborators have developed a new way of creating the combs that promises to boost their already exquisite accuracy and allow them to measure light over a range of frequencies that was previously inaccessible. The extended range will enable frequency combs to probe cells and other biological material.
The new devices, which are fabricated on a small glass chip, operate in a fundamentally different way from previous chip-based frequency combs, also known as microcombs.

Researchers at JQI and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed standards and calibrations for optical microscopes that allow quantum dots to be aligned with the center of a photonic component to within an error of 10 to 20 nanometers (about one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper). Such alignment is critical for chip-scale devices that employ the radiation emitted by quantum dots to store and transmit quantum information.

Researchers have constructed new mathematical tools for continuous variable (CV) quantum systems, which could lead to more efficient benchmarking for quantum devices and more efficient ways of representing quantum states on classical hardware.

Researchers have constructed new mathematical tools for continuous variable (CV) quantum systems, which could lead to more efficient benchmarking for quantum devices and more efficient ways of representing quantum states on classical hardware.

Humanity’s desire to measure time more and more accurately has been a driving force in technological development, and improved clocks and the innovations behind them have repeatedly delivered unexpected applications and scientific discoveries. For instance, when sailors needed high precision timekeeping to better navigate the open seas, it motivated the development of mechanical clocks. And in turn, more accurate clocks allowed better measurements in astronomy and physics. Now, clocks are inescapable parts of daily life, but the demands of GPS, space navigation and other applications are still motivating scientists to push timekeeping to new extremes.

In research, sometimes the bumpy path proves to be the best one. By creating tiny, periodic bumps in a miniature racetrack for light, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues at JQI have converted near-infrared (NIR) laser light into specific desired wavelengths of visible light with high accuracy and efficiency.

Scientists know that entanglement, a special connection that intertwines the fate of quantum particles, is a crucial ingredient for quantum computers. Without it, a quantum computer loses its ability to harness the fullness of quantum complexity—that special sauce that makes the quantum world impossible to emulate on ordinary computers. But whether entanglement is the only key, and exactly how much of it is needed, no one really knows.