Quantum mechanics

Topic description and stories

2015-12-22 chemistry, Credit: Robert Couse-Baker

Researchers chart the ‘secret’ movement of quantum particles

22 Dec 2017

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have taken a peek into the secretive domain of quantum mechanics. In a theoretical paper published in...

Regime of a single 1D wire subband filled

A tight squeeze for electrons – quantum effects observed in ‘one-dimensional’ wires

15 Sep 2016

Researchers have observed quantum effects in electrons by squeezing them into one-dimensional ‘quantum wires’ and observing the interactions between...

Depiction of indistinguishable photons leaving through the same output port of a beam splitter

Laser technique promises super-fast and super-secure quantum cryptography

04 Apr 2016

A new method of implementing an ‘unbreakable’ quantum cryptographic system is able to transmit information at rates more than ten times faster than...

Some of the products and prototypes on display at Cambridge Graphene Technology Day.

Graphene means business – two-dimensional material moves from the lab to the UK factory floor

06 Nov 2015

A major showcase of companies developing new technologies from graphene and other two-dimensional materials took place this week at the Cambridge...

Pentacene molecules convert a single photon into two molecular excitations via the quantum mechanics of singlet fission

Entanglement at heart of 'two-for-one' fission in next-generation solar cells

26 Oct 2015

The mechanism behind a process known as singlet fission, which could drive the development of highly efficient solar cells, has been directly...

An image from an experiment in the quantum optics laboratory in Cambridge. Laser light was used to excite individual tiny, artificially constructed atoms known as quantum dots, to create “squeezed” single photons

Scientists "squeeze" light one particle at a time

01 Sep 2015

A team of scientists have measured a bizarre effect in quantum physics, in which individual particles of light are said to have been “squeezed” – an...

The radiation pattern from a dipole antenna showing symmetry breaking of the electric field

New understanding of electromagnetism could enable ‘antennas on a chip’

09 Apr 2015

New understanding of the nature of electromagnetism could lead to antennas small enough to fit on computer chips – the ‘last frontier’ of...

Spin manipulation in a noisy environment. In the quest for ever more precise manipulation of quantum systems, any uncontrolled interaction with the environment is usually considered detrimental.

Spin with a new twist

10 Oct 2014

Scientists have successfully demonstrated a new way to control the “spin” of an electron – the natural intrinsic angular momentum of electrons which...

Born identity revealed in newly-opened archive

07 Oct 2011

A Nobel Prize Medal, a postcard from Einstein and a Hitler-stamped letter of expulsion are among a fascinating archive of documents and other...