Volume 4 Issue 7, July 2008

Optomechanical set-ups use radiation pressure to manipulate macroscopic mechanical objects. Two experiments transfer this concept to the fields of superconducting microwave circuits and cold-atom physics.

The motion of electrons inside, around and between atoms can be captured with attosecond time resolution. A technique has now been demonstrated that can reveal electron dynamics even without attosecond light flashes.

The ability to electrically control spin dynamics in quantum dots makes them one of the most promising platforms for solid-state quantum-information processing. Minimizing the influence of the nuclear spin environment is an important step towards realizing such promise.

Fluorophores are quantum objects that blink intermittently and whose dark states exist practically ‘forever’—on quantum-mechanical scales, that is. Although there is no accepted theory, there has been plenty of theoretical progress.

Defects in Josephson junctions are considered a nuisance when it comes to using superconducting circuits as building blocks for a quantum-information processor. But if the interaction between the circuit and defects is accurately controlled—as has been demonstrated now—the imperfections might be useful, serving as memory elements.

In copper-oxide superconductors, charge carriers must be added to the insulating ‘parent’ compound before superconductivity appears. Exactly how the dopants affect the crystalline surface and evolving Fermi surface is now clear.

Infrared spectra of graphene deposited on a silicon oxide substrate suggest that many-body effects have a more significant role in determining its electronic behaviour than in free-standing graphene

Carbon nanotube double quantum dots, whose shell-like electronic structure is reminiscent of that of a simple molecule, provide a useful system to study the interaction of just a few electrons at a time.

The observation of spin blockade and lifetime-enhanced transport effects in Si/SiGe double quantum dots represents a promising step in the development of silicon-based quantum devices.

Accurate measurement of the phase of the high harmonics emitted from aligned CO₂ molecules in a strong laser field represent an important step in the generation of shaped attosecond pulses and the coherent control of matter.

In dense colloidal suspensions, the spatial and temporal fluctuations in the dynamics of the constituent particles are closely related. But very close to the jamming transition—where the suspension becomes rigid—they are found to follow different trends.

Measurements of the position of a nanoscale beam using a microwave cavity detector represents a promising step towards being able to measure displacements at the quantum limit.

Nanoscale beams are one platform for exploring quantum-mechanical phenomena in ever-larger systems. The collective motion of a macroscopic ensemble of ultracold atoms confined in an optical cavity is established as an alternative approach.

A technique that uses the rotating electric-field vector of a circularly polarized laser pulse as a ‘clock’ provides a fresh approach to measuring electron dynamics with attosecond time resolution.

Superfluid ³He is a quantum condensate in which the He atoms are paired in an unconventional way. Yet despite extensive research on the collective modes of superfluid ³He, one mode has remained undiscovered, until now.

Conflicting messages.