Scientists have learned that they can intentionally cause symmetry breaking — or symmetry restoration — in quantum dots to create new materials with unique properties. In a recent study, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have discovered how to use light to change the arrangement of atoms in these miniscule structures.

Now a team of researchers led by Mohammad Mirhosseini, assistant professor of electrical engineering and applied physics at Caltech, has developed an on-chip transducer to help bridge that significant energy gap. The silicon device performs a stepwise transformation to convert microwave photons to optical photons. The work is described online in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Now a team led by Nadj-Perge that includes Lingyuan Kong, AWS quantum postdoctoral scholar research associate, and other colleagues at Caltech has discovered a new superconducting state—a finding that provides a new piece of the puzzle behind this mysterious but powerful phenomenon. A paper about the work was published on March 19 in the journal Nature.

Lightmatter has announced Passage M1000, a groundbreaking 3D Photonic Superchip designed for next-generation XPUs and switches. The Passage M1000 enables a record-breaking 114 Tbps total optical bandwidth for the most demanding AI infrastructure applications.

ICFO researchers unveil a new strategy that significantly enhances the performance of silver telluride colloidal quantum dots for shortwave infrared (SWIR) photodetection, paving the way for the widespread adoption of SWIR detectors in consumer electronics and automotive applications.

An international research team led by QuTech has realised a three-site Kitaev chain using semiconducting quantum dots coupled by superconducting segments in a hybrid InSb/Al nanowire. When comparing two-and three-site chains within the same device, they observed that extending the chain to three sites increased the stability of the zero-energy modes. This work demonstrates the scalability of quantum-dot-based Kitaev chains and their potential to host stable Majorana zero modes. The researchers published their results in Nature Nanotechnology.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have made a surprising discovery about how superconductivity behaves in extremely thin materials. Superconductors are materials that allow electric current to flow without resistance, which makes them incredibly valuable for technology. Usually, the properties of superconductors change predictably when the materials become thinner; however, this study found something unexpected.

Newly published research in the journal Nature demonstrates a new way of generating long-wave infrared and terahertz waves, which is an important step toward creating materials that can help realize these technological advances. The work, led by researchers at the CUNY ASRC paves the way for cheaper, smaller long-wave infrared light sources and more efficient device cooling.

In a groundbreaking advance that could accelerate the development of quantum technologies, researchers at the USC Viterbi Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and School of Advanced Computing have demonstrated the first optical filter capable of isolating and preserving quantum entanglement—a mysterious but powerful phenomenon at the heart of quantum computing, communication, and sensing. This work, published in Science, opens the door to compact, high-performance entanglement systems that can be integrated into quantum photonic circuits, enabling more reliable quantum computing architectures and communication networks.

A study, led by the University of Portsmouth, has achieved unprecedented precision in detecting tiny shifts in light displacements at the nanoscale. This is relevant for example in the characterisation of birefringent materials and in high-precision measurements of rotations.