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Quantum engineering

Turn to the dark side

Nature Physics volume 12, pages 21–22 (2016)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 02 February 2016

This article has been updated

Coherent population trapping in 'dark states', a well-known and much-used phenomenon in atomic physics, can also be observed in a superconducting qubit and a single nuclear spin in diamond.

An intriguing quantum phenomenon stemming from destructive interference is coherent population trapping (CPT, see Box 1), where the quantum system is trapped in a 'dark state' that does not interact with light. Once CPT sets in, no absorption or emission of light occurs, as if the system were transparent. This is called electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). CPT and EIT are well known in atomic physics and quantum optics, and exploited in quantum memories, laser cooling, optical pumping and metrology. Some of these concepts are closely related to the field of quantum information processing. This area has seen the promising rise of solid-state quantum systems operating at microwave frequencies during the past decade. And now two research groups report the realization of CPT with microwaves in two very different solid-state quantum systems: a superconducting qubit1, and a single nuclear spin in diamond2.

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Figure 1: Two solid-state quantum systems in which CPT has now been realized.

Change history

  • 12 January 2016

    In the News and Views 'Turn to the dark side' (Nature Physics 12, 21–22; 2016), Yuimaru Kubo's email address was incorrect and should have read yuimaru.kubo@oist.jp. This has now been corrected in the online versions after print 12 January 2016.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yuimaru Kubo is in the Quantum Dynamics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University, Onna, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan,

    Yuimaru Kubo

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  1. Yuimaru Kubo
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Correspondence to Yuimaru Kubo.

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Kubo, Y. Turn to the dark side. Nature Phys 12, 21–22 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3582

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