photons

Figure: Spin-locking effect of photons scattered from nanoparticles in a fluid moving randomly due to Brownian motion. Courtesy of Prof. Erez Hasman, Technion

Order from Chaos: Brownian Motion “Locks” the Spin of Photons in a Liquid

A study in Nature Materials from the Technion and China presents a new phenomenon in which light scattering from randomly moving nanoparticles creates measurable order – and may enable particle characterization and new optical methods.

Light alone cannot create a black hole

Researchers from Canada and Spain have demonstrated for the first time that black holes cannot be formed from the compression of electromagnetic radiation alone. The reason for this lies in a quantum effect that converts energy into particles that scatter from the compressed area and prevent the light from collapsing
Quantum computing. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Quantum flow circuits

Researchers have built a component that amplifies quantum signals that can be used to upgrade quantum computing capabilities
The institute's scientists were looking for how to establish an efficient method for processing information in quantum computers - and unexpectedly discovered a new type of vortices that are created when two photons collide

When a particle of light sees the light

The institute's scientists were looking for how to establish an efficient method for processing information in quantum computers - and unexpectedly discovered a new type of vortices that are created when two photons collide
A two-dimensional projection of the cosmic web as obtained from a supercomputer simulation. Credit: Dr. Ewald Puchwein and the Sherwood-Relics collaboration

New research suggests that dark matter may be made of dark photons

The new hypothetical particles may be able to explain the observations made by the Cosmic Source Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope
Much more detail: nanocrystals as they are seen using the microscopy method developed by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science (right) and as they are seen under a normal light microscope (left). Scale: 0.5 micron

Things you see in the small

When light and matter work together

FLAME system: store light particles on electron orbits. Source: Weizmann Institute magazine.

stop the light

The photonic big bang: weak disorder creates a weak nanometric separation between photons with opposite spin (red and blue) - "photonic spin-Hall effect". Only in complete disorder does the "photonic explosion" occur - photons with opposite spins split and fill the entire momentum space - the "photonic Rashba effect". The phenomenon describes a topological phase transition that manifests itself in symmetry breaking. The research was inspired by models in cosmology that describe the Big Bang. Silicon nanoantennas are depicted in the picture, and the transition from antennas ordered in their direction to complete disorder is expressed by measuring a sharp increase in entropy (as a measure of disorder). Source: Technion.

The "big bang" in nanooptics

molecules of light

Researchers have shown that two photons, seen here as waves (right and left), can connect a short distance apart. Under certain conditions, these photons can create a state similar to a diatomic molecule, a state shown by the shape of the blue dumbbell in the center of the movement. Figure: NIST

Is it possible to make molecules composed of light?

The left diagram represents electromagnetic activity with light at the lowest level possible according to the laws of classical physics. On the right, part of the electromagnetic field has been reduced even further. The price is the inability to measure the beam of light. This effect is called "squeezing" (like squeezing juice from an orange) due to the elliptical shape it creates. Illustration: Mete Atature, University of Cambridge.

Scientists "squeezed" a beam of light - photon after photon

Quantum entanglement. Illustration: Technical University of Vienna

Strong recombination of photons in an optical fiber

An illustration showing the photonic transistor created by the scientists. At its heart is a single atom (in orange) that directs photons (in yellow) in different directions

The world's first photonic transistor

Nanocrystals that convert two low-energy photons into one high-energy photon, under an electron microscope

Energy from red to green

The space shuttle Endeavor is docked at the space station as photographed from the Soyuz spacecraft that left the station. Photo: Paolo Nespoli, European Space Agency

"Scary action from a distance" inside the International Space Station

A quantum computer. Illustration: IBM

A single atom capable of storing quantum information

Photographing atoms using four-dimensional microscopy

Scientists were able to observe photons with the help of electrons