Nanowerk February 25, 2024 Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have been widely used to study the discrete nature of quantum states of light in the form of photon-counting experiments. Researchers in Germany showed that SNSPDs can also be used to study continuous variables of optical quantum states by performing homodyne detection at a bandwidth of 400 kHz. By measuring the interference of a continuous-wave field of a local oscillator with the field of the vacuum state using two SNSPDs, they showed that the variance of the difference in count rates was linearly proportional to the photon flux of the local […]
Tag Archives: Light properties
Light traveling in a distorting medium can appear undistorted
Phys.org June 24, 2022 An international team of researchers (South Africa, Mexico, Scotland) demonstrated that “distortion” is a matter of perspective, outlining a simple rule that applies to all light and a vast array of media, including underwater, optical fiber, transmission in the atmosphere and even through living biological samples. They showed that despite the distortion the “vectorness” of light remains unchanged, invariant to the media. It holds the key exploiting light even under non-ideal conditions. The team’s approach allows researchers to identify how to correct any distortions through the media without loss of light. According to the researchers their […]