Phys.org March 18, 2024 Researchers in Austria produced a sub-terahertz holographic image of a two-dimensional 576-bit data code using a diffractive phase-plate element. The phase plate was designed to encode a focused image of the data code into a phase modulation profile. The complex phase plate structure is fabricated from polylactic acid using fused deposition modeling, a common three-dimensional-printing technique. The simplified optical setup, consisted of a 0.14 THz diverging source, the holographic phase plate, and a scanning detector, without the need for additional optical elements. The information stored in the data code was an example of a cryptographic private […]
Tag Archives: S&T Austria
Bacteria as blacksmiths – new method to assemble unconventional materials
Nanowerk July 27, 2023 When in equilibrium, thermal forces agitate molecules, which then diffuse, collide, and bind to form materials. However, the space of accessible structures in which micron-scale particles can be organized by thermal forces is limited, owing to the slow dynamics and metastable states. Active agents in a passive fluid generate forces and flows, forming a bath with active fluctuations. Two unanswered questions are whether those active agents can drive the assembly of passive components into unconventional states and which material properties they will exhibit. Researchers in Austria showed that passive, sticky beads immersed in a bath of […]
Wiring up quantum circuits with light
Science Daily May 18, 2023 Quantum entanglement is a key resource in currently developed quantum technologies. Sharing this fragile property between superconducting microwave circuits and optical or atomic systems would enable new functionalities, but this has been hindered by an energy scale mismatch of >104 and the resulting mutually imposed loss and noise. Researchers in Austria created and verified entanglement between microwave and optical fields in a millikelvin environment. Using an optically pulsed superconducting electro-optical device, they showed entanglement between propagating microwave and optical fields in the continuous variable domain. According to the researchers their work not only paves the […]
A blueprint for a quantum computer in reverse gear
Phys.org May 4, 2023 If two integers are entered as the input value, the computer circuit returns their product. Researchers in Austria developed inversion of algorithms with the help of quantum computers. The logic of the circuit was encoded within ground states of a quantum system. Both multiplication and factorization could be understood as ground-state problems and solved using quantum optimization methods. The core of their work was the encoding of the basic building blocks of the multiplier circuit, specifically AND gates, half, and full adders with the parity architecture as the ground state problem on an ensemble of interacting […]
Two qudits fully entangled
Science Daily April 20, 2023 Quantum information carriers, just like most physical systems, naturally occupy high-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Instead of restricting them to a two-level subspace, these high-dimensional (qudit) quantum systems are emerging as a powerful resource for the next generation of quantum processors. Yet harnessing the potential of these systems requires efficient ways of generating the desired interaction between them. Researchers in Austria experimentally demonstrated implementation of a native two-qudit entangling gate up to dimension 5 in a trapped-ion system. This was achieved by generalizing a recently proposed light-shift gate mechanism to generate genuine qudit entanglement in a single […]
How to fire projectiles through materials without breaking anything
Nanowerk November 28, 2022 Researchers in Austria bombarded ultrathin materials with highly charged ions to explain why sometimes the projectile penetrates the material layer without any noticeable change in the material and sometimes the material layer around the impact site is also completely destroyed. They found that it is not the momentum of the projectile that is mainly responsible for the holes, but its electric charge. When an ion with multiple positive charge hits the material layer, it attracts a larger number of electrons and takes them with it leaving a positively charged region in the material layer. Graphene’s high […]
Universal parity quantum computing, a new architecture that overcomes performance limitations
Phys.org October 28, 2022 Researchers in Austria have developed a universal gate set for quantum computing with all-to-all connectivity and intrinsic robustness to bit-flip errors based on parity encoding. They showed that logical controlled phase gate and Rz rotations can be implemented in parity encoding with single-qubit operations. Together with logical Rx rotations, implemented via nearest-neighbor controlled-NOT gates and an Rx rotation, these form a universal gate set. As the controlled phase gate requires only single-qubit rotations, the proposed scheme has advantages for several cornerstone quantum algorithms, e.g., the quantum Fourier transform. They presented a method to switch between different […]
Multisensory hybrid material as smart electronic skin
Nanowerk May 16, 2022 Researchers in Austria proposed a simplified design with biocompatible materials for an efficient electronic skin. They demonstrated that it can deliver multi-stimuli sensitivity with high spatial resolution. While the piezoelectricity of ZnO provided sensitivity to external force, the thermoresponsiveness of the hydrogel core provided sensitivity to surrounding temperature and humidity changes. The hydrogel core exerted mechanical stress onto the ZnO shell, which was translated to a measurable piezoelectric signal. A localized force sensitivity was achieved with very low cross talk. They demonstrated the sensor’s sensitivity to humidity was above and below the hydrogel’s lower critical solution […]
A new AI chip can perform image recognition tasks in nanoseconds
MIT Technology Review March 4, 2020 Visual information is captured by a frame-based camera, converted into a digital format and processed afterwards using a machine-learning algorithm such as an artificial neural network (ANN). The large amount of data passed through the entire signal chain, however, results in low frame rates and high-power consumption. Researchers in Austria built a sensor based on a reconfigurable two-dimensional semiconductor photodiode array, and the synaptic weights of the network are stored in a continuously tunable photoresponsivity matrix. The sensor can itself constitute an ANN that can simultaneously sense and process optical images without latency. They […]
Solving the mystery of quantum light in thin layers
Science Daily October 15, 2019 Single-photon emitters play a key role in present and emerging quantum technologies. Several recent measurements have established monolayer WSe2 as a promising candidate for a reliable single-photon source. Researchers in Austria have shown that the origin and underlying microscopic processes responsible for this quantum light effect are the subtle interaction of single atomic defects in the material and mechanical strain. Computer simulations show how the electrons are driven to specific places in the material, where they are captured by a defect, lose energy and emit a photon…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE