Quantum Light

Artist’s impression of photons stimulating a quantum dot. Credit: The University of Basel

Scientists open door to manipulating ‘quantum light’ to advance medical imaging and quantum computing.

For the first time, scientists at the University of Sydney and the University of Basel in Switzerland have demonstrated the ability to manipulate and identify small numbers of interacting photons – packets of light energy – with high correlation.

This unprecedented achievement represents an important landmark in the development of quantum technologies.

Specifically, the scientists could measure the direct time delay between one photon and a pair of bound photons scattering off a single quantum dot, a type of artificially created atom.

“This opens the door to the manipulation of what we can call ‘quantum light’,” Dr. Sahand Mahmoodian from the University of Sydney School of Physics and joint lead author of the research said.

Published in Nature Physics