Optical physics articles within Nature Physics

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  • News & Views |

    Spin coherence of valence holes in semiconductor quantum-dots is governed by interactions with the nuclear spins of the dot lattice. Experiments and theory have revealed an important new ingredient that determines the strength and sign of this coupling.

    • Bernhard Urbaszek

  • News & Views |

    A technique for detecting the presence of a photon without destroying the quantum message it carries could ultimately lead to a loophole-free test of quantum non-locality.

    • A. I. Lvovsky

  • Letter |

    Many-particle entangled states and entanglement between continuous properties are valuable resources for quantum information, but are notoriously difficult to generate. An experiment now entangles the energy and emission times of three photons, creating generalized Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen correlations.

    • L. K. Shalm
    • , D. R. Hamel
    •  & T. Jennewein

  • Article |

    Photonic crystals efficiently control wave propagation on a wavelength scale, but this means they can become very large when long wavelengths are involved. Metamaterials made of resonant unit cells can confine and guide waves even at scales far below their wavelength.

    • Fabrice Lemoult
    • , Nadège Kaina
    •  & Geoffroy Lerosey

  • News & Views |

    Hyper-transport — an increase in diffusion beyond the ballistic-transport regime — is observed in an optical system.

    • Marco Peccianti
    •  & Roberto Morandotti

  • Article |

    An increase in diffusion beyond the ballistic-transport regime is now demonstrated. This so-called hyper-transport is observed in an optical experiment, but it might also be evident in other systems with time-varying disorder.

    • Liad Levi
    • , Yevgeny Krivolapov
    •  & Mordechai Segev

  • Letter |

    Long-distance quantum communication is limited by optical absorption and scattering. A noiseless amplifier for photonic qubits coherently encoded across two optical modes is now demonstrated, which could combat this negative effect. The method enabled a fivefold increase in the transmission fidelity of the polarization state of a single photon.

    • S. Kocsis
    • , G. Y. Xiang
    •  & G. J. Pryde

  • News & Views |

    A sophisticated model of the birth and early evolution of coronal mass ejections could lead to better forecast of the 'weather' in space.

    • Stefaan Poedts

  • Article |

    Sudden bursts of charged particles emitted from the surface of the Sun can disrupt the satellites orbiting Earth. However, the mechanisms that drive these so-called coronal mass ejections remain unclear. An advanced computer model now establishes a link between the onset of an ejection and the emergence of magnetic flux into the solar atmosphere.

    • Ilia I. Roussev
    • , Klaus Galsgaard
    •  & Jun Lin

  • News & Views |

    Optical vortices usually break up when they propagate through nonlinear media. Now, however, experiments show the helical structure of an infrared beam can survive a high-harmonic-generation process. This could lead to a table-top source of attosecond helical light pulses.

    • Serguei Patchkovskii
    •  & Michael Spanner

  • News & Views |

    Faraday and Dirac constructed magnetic monopoles using the practical and mathematical tools available to them. Now physicists have engineered effective monopoles by combining modern optics with nanotechnology. Part matter and part light, these magnetic monopoles travel at unprecedented speeds.

    • Steven T. Bramwell

  • Letter |

    Optical vortices exhibit a corkscrew-like shape as they travel. The study of this phenomenon, known as singular optics, is now extended to the high-power regime where high-harmonic processes become evident. This type of radiation could help illuminate novel attosecond phenomena in atoms and molecules.

    • M. Zürch
    • , C. Kern
    •  & Ch. Spielmann

  • Letter |

    An analogue of a magnetic monopole is now observed in a condensed state of light–matter hybrid particles known as cavity polaritons. Spin-phase excitations of the polariton fluid are accelerated along the cavity under the influence of a magnetic field—just as if they were single magnetic charges.

    • R. Hivet
    • , H. Flayac
    •  & A. Amo

  • Article |

    Quantum discord is the total non-classical correlation between two systems. This includes, but is not limited to, entanglement. Photonic experiments now demonstrate that separable states with non-zero quantum discord are a useful resource for quantum information processing and can even outperform entangled states.

    • Borivoje Dakić
    • , Yannick Ole Lipp
    •  & Philip Walther

  • Article |

    Entanglement is not the only type of quantum correlation. Quantum discord is a broader measure of such non-classical interactions. An experimental investigation now shows how quantum discord can be consumed to encode information, even in the absence of entanglement.

    • Mile Gu
    • , Helen M. Chrzanowski
    •  & Ping Koy Lam

  • News & Views |

    Graphene could offer an efficient and controllable interface between nanoscale optics and electronics, and promises a new generation of optoelectronic devices.

    • Stefan A. Maier

  • Letter |

    In systems of oscillators, phase-locking behaviour can, in theory, coexist with incoherent dynamics—invoking the fabled chimera state. Now, experimental realization of a coupled-map lattice reveals dynamical states displaying coexisting spatial domains of coherence and incoherence.

    • Aaron M. Hagerstrom
    • , Thomas E. Murphy
    •  & Eckehard Schöll

  • Letter |

    Hilbert space is made up of a potentially infinite number of dimensions that correspond to all the parameters needed to fully define a system. The idea is seen as an important resource for quantum information processing. A technique for estimating the number of dimensions in an unknown system based on the results of measurements performed on it—a so-called dimension witness—is now experimentally demonstrated.

    • Johan Ahrens
    • , Piotr Badzia̧g
    •  & Mohamed Bourennane

  • Letter |

    Is it possible to deduce the number of dimensions of a completely unknown system only from the results of measurements performed on it? So-called dimension witnesses allow such an estimation, and are now experimentally demonstrated using pairs of entangled photons.

    • Martin Hendrych
    • , Rodrigo Gallego
    •  & Juan P. Torres

  • Letter |

    A quantum memory that combines high-efficiency and long lifetime is now demonstrated. Employing a collective excitation, or spin wave, in an ensemble of atoms in a trap improves memory lifetime, while incorporating the trap into an optical ring cavity simultaneously aids higher retrieval efficiency.

    • Xiao-Hui Bao
    • , Andreas Reingruber
    •  & Jian-Wei Pan

  • Article |

    In 2000, Asher Peres put forward the paradoxical idea that entanglement could be produced after the entangled particles have been measured, even if they no longer exist. Researchers now experimentally demonstrate this idea using four photons.

    • Xiao-song Ma
    • , Stefan Zotter
    •  & Anton Zeilinger

  • Letter |

    Bose–Einstein condensation is usually considered to be an inherently quantum mechanical phenomenon. An observation of the condensation in a classical system of light waves in a nonlinear crystal demonstrates that it is a general wave-mechanical phenomenon.

    • Can Sun
    • , Shu Jia
    •  & Jason W. Fleischer

  • Review Article |

    Quantum optics has played an important role in the exploration of foundational issues in quantum mechanics, and in using quantum effects for information processing and communications purposes. Photonic quantum systems now also provide a valuable test bed for quantum simulations. This article surveys the first generation of such experiments, and discusses the prospects for tackling outstanding problems in physics, chemistry and biology.

    • Alán Aspuru-Guzik
    •  & Philip Walther

  • Article |

    Commutation relations define the limit to which two complementary properties can be simultaneously known—Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Yet it is thought that these canonical relations might be different in the quantum gravity regime. Researchers now show how quantum-optics experiments might provide a direct route for studying these effects.

    • Igor Pikovski
    • , Michael R. Vanner
    •  & Časlav Brukner

  • News & Views |

    A single photon can alter the shape of a molecule. It is now shown that quantum effects can play an important role in this change leading to conformation relaxation rates hundreds of times faster than previously expected.

    • Shaul Mukamel

  • Article |

    A molecule can alter shape as it absorbs a photon. It is now shown that quantum effects can play an important role in this change leading to conformation rates hundreds of times faster than previously expected.

    • J. Clark
    • , T. Nelson
    •  & G. Lanzani

  • News & Views |

    Two-qubit entanglement can be preserved by partially measuring the qubits to leave them in a 'lethargic' state. The original state is restored using quantum measurement reversal after the qubits have travelled through a decoherence channel.

    • Alexander N. Korotkov

  • News & Views |

    In quantum control there is an inherent tension between high fidelity requirements and the need for speed to avoid decoherence. A direct comparison of quantum control protocols at these two extremes indicates where the sweet spot may lie.

    • Lloyd C. L. Hollenberg

  • Article |

    Superfluorescence—the emission of coherent light from an initially incoherent collection of excited dipoles—is now identified in a semiconductor. Laser-excited electron–hole pairs spontaneously polarize and then abruptly decay to produce intense pulses of light.

    • G. Timothy Noe II
    • , Ji-Hee Kim
    •  & Junichiro Kono

  • News & Views |

    The electronic degrees of freedom in semiconductor membranes provide an innovative new way of cooling mechanical motion.

    • Andrew Armour

  • News & Views |

    Brillouin scattering of light is now shown to attenuate the Brownian motion of microscopic acoustic resonators. This electrostrictive phenomenon could be a useful complement to the ponderomotive and photothermal effects that can optically control optomechanical systems.

    • Ivan Favero

  • Letter |

    A novel mechanism for cooling tiny mechanical resonators is now demonstrated. Inelastic scattering of light from phonons in an electrostrictive material attenuates the Brownian motion of the mechanical mode.

    • Gaurav Bahl
    • , Matthew Tomes
    •  & Tal Carmon

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