A team of physicists and engineers at the CU Boulder has discovered a new way to measure the orientation of magnetic fields using what may be the tiniest compasses around—atoms. The group’s findings could one day lead to a host of new quantum sensors, from devices that map out the activity of the human brain to others that could help airplanes navigate the globe. The new study, published this month in the journal Optica, stems from a collaboration between physicist Cindy Regal and quantum engineer Svenja Knappe.

Adtran today launched its Enhanced Short-Term Unit (ESTU) precision timing module, a new addition to its OSA 3300 High-Performance (OSA 3300 HP) and OSA 3300 Super High-Performance (OSA 3300 SHP) optical cesium clocks. Designed to meet the demands of industries requiring ultra-stable short-term timing, the module achieves performance levels comparable to the passive hydrogen maser, which is no longer available in the Western market.

Now, in a series of lab experiments, researchers have laid out a path for making those kinds of measurements even more sensitive and faster—doubling the speed of frequency comb detectors. The work is a collaboration between Scott Diddams at CU Boulder Boulder and Jérôme Genest at Université Laval in Canada.

Scientists from Durham's top-rated Physics department have set a global milestone by achieving quantum entanglement of individual molecules using cutting-edge magic-wavelength optical tweezers. This achievement not only overcomes a fundamental challenge in quantum science but also opens up new possibilities in quantum computing, high-precision measurements, and physics research.

In a recent study published in Science Advances, a team of researchers led by Shengxi Huang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice, describes how one such type of quasiparticle - polarons - behaves in tellurene, a nanomaterial first synthesized in 2017 that is made up of tiny chains of tellurium atoms and has properties useful in sensing, electronic, optical and energy devices.

A new milestone in nuclear physics has been achieved with the direct observation of three different deformations in the atomic nucleus of lead-190 (190Pb). These deformations, associated with three distinct shapes–spherical, oblate (resembling a tomato), and prolate (similar to a watermelon)–exist simultaneously near the ground state. The findings, published in Communications Physics in January 2025, were made possible by complementary experimental techniques and call for better theoretical models.

Using supercold environments and a quantum computer, Purdue researchers examined the evolution of a network of Ising spins in the presence of a transverse field. Much like ripples on water, the wave moves across the surface, but the water molecules move up and down, perpendicular to the wave's direction. This type of computational discovery is challenging with conventional or even supercomputers. This discovery, led by Arnab Banerjee, an assistant professor at Purdue University's Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been published in Nature Communications.

Wenchao Xu, tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics with a joint appointment at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), believes that large arrays of neutral atoms make a promising architecture for quantum computing and simulation. Her project, which is financially supported by ETH Zurich and by a SNSF Starting Grant that began last year, puts forward what Xu refers to as a dual-type, dual-element atom array bringing together individually trapped ytterbium atoms and small ensembles of rubidium atoms.

Electron transport in bilayer graphene exhibits a pronounced dependence on edge states and a nonlocal transport mechanism, according to a recent study led by Professor Gil-Ho Lee and Ph.D. candidate Hyeon-Woo Jeong of POSTECH’s Department of Physics, in collaboration with Dr. Kenji Watanabe and Dr. Takashi Taniguchi at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). The findings were published in the international nanotechnology journal Nano Letters.

In a recent breakthrough, scientists from Okayama University in Japan developed nanodiamond sensors bright enough for bioimaging, with spin properties comparable to those of bulk diamonds. The study, published in ACS Nano, on 16 December 2024, was led by Research Professor Masazumi Fujiwara from Okayama University, in collaboration with Sumitomo Electric Company and the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology.