Microwave photonics articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • Letter |

    Quantum mechanics sets a fundamental upper limit for the flow of heat. Such quantum-limited heat conduction is now observed over macroscopic distances, extending to a metre, in superconducting transmission lines.

    • Matti Partanen
    • , Kuan Yen Tan
    •  & Mikko Möttönen

  • News & Views |

    A tiny drum converts between infrared and microwave signals with record efficiency by keeping the beat of both.

    • Mankei Tsang

  • Article |

    An optomechanical system that converts microwaves to optical frequency light and vice versa is demonstrated. The technique achieves a conversion efficiency of approximately 10%. The results indicate that the device could work at the quantum level, up- and down-converting individual photons, if it were cooled to millikelvin temperatures. It could, therefore, form an integral part of quantum-processor networks.

    • R. W. Andrews
    • , R. W. Peterson
    •  & K. W. Lehnert

  • News & Views |

    Defects in the crystal lattice of silicon carbide prove to be a useful room-temperature source of non-classical light.

    • Igor Aharonovich
    •  & Milos Toth

  • Article |

    Defects in silicon carbide can produce continuous-wave microwaves at room temperature. Spectroscopic analysis indicates a photoinduced inversion of the population in the spin ground states, which makes the defects a potential route to stimulated amplification of microwave radiation.

    • H. Kraus
    • , V. A. Soltamov
    •  & G. V. Astakhov

  • Letter |

    A nanomechanical interface between optical photons and microwave electrical signals is now demonstrated. Coherent transfer between microwave and optical fields is achieved by parametric electro-optical coupling in a piezoelectric optomechanical crystal, and this on-chip technology could form the basis of photonic networks of superconducting quantum bits.

    • Joerg Bochmann
    • , Amit Vainsencher
    •  & Andrew N. Cleland

  • Letter |

    Shor’s quantum algorithm factorizes integers, and implementing this is a benchmark test in the early development of quantum processors. Researchers now demonstrate this important test in a solid-state system: a circuit made up of four superconducting qubits factorizes the number 15.

    • Erik Lucero
    • , R. Barends
    •  & John M. Martinis

  • Article |

    An ideal amplifier has low noise, operates over a broad frequency range and has large dynamic range. A superconducting-resonator-based amplifier that combines all of these qualities is now demonstrated. The concept is applicable throughout the microwave, millimetre-wave and submillimetre-wave bands and can achieve a noise limit very close to that set by quantum mechanics.

    • Byeong Ho Eom
    • , Peter K. Day
    •  & Jonas Zmuidzinas

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