PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Caltech team produces squeezed light using a silicon micromechanical system

2013-08-08
(Press-News.org) One of the many counterintuitive and bizarre insights of quantum mechanics is that even in a vacuum—what many of us think of as an empty void—all is not completely still. Low levels of noise, known as quantum fluctuations, are always present. Always, that is, unless you can pull off a quantum trick. And that's just what a team led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has done. The group has engineered a miniature silicon system that produces a type of light that is quieter at certain frequencies—meaning it has fewer quantum fluctuations—than what is usually present in a vacuum.

This special type of light with fewer fluctuations is known as squeezed light and is useful for making precise measurements at lower power levels than are required when using normal light. Although other research groups previously have produced squeezed light, the Caltech team's new system, which is miniaturized on a silicon microchip, generates the ultraquiet light in a way that can be more easily adapted to a variety of sensor applications.

"This system should enable a new set of precision microsensors capable of beating standard limits set by quantum mechanics," says Oskar Painter, a professor of applied physics at Caltech and the senior author on a paper that describes the system; the paper appears in the August 8 issue of the journal Nature. "Our experiment brings together, in a tiny microchip package, many aspects of work that has been done in quantum optics and precision measurement over the last 40 years."

The history of squeezed light is closely associated with Caltech. More than 30 years ago, Kip Thorne, Caltech's Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, and physicist Carlton Caves (PhD '79) theorized that squeezed light would enable scientists to build more sensitive detectors that could make more precise measurements. A decade later, Caltech's Jeff Kimble, the William L. Valentine Professor and professor of physics, and his colleagues conducted some of the first experiments using squeezed light. Since then, the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration has invested heavily in research on squeezed light because of its potential to enhance the sensitivity of gravitational-wave detectors.

In the past, squeezed light has been made using so-called nonlinear materials, which have unusual optical properties. This latest Caltech work marks the first time that squeezed light has been produced using silicon, a standard material. "We work with a material that's very plain in terms of its optical properties," says Amir Safavi-Naeini (PhD '13), a graduate student in Painter's group and one of three lead authors on the new paper. "We make it special by engineering or punching holes into it, making these mechanical structures that respond to light in a very novel way. Of course, silicon is also a material that is technologically very amenable to fabrication and integration, enabling a great many applications in electronics."

In this new system, a waveguide feeds laser light into a cavity created by two tiny silicon beams. Once there, the light bounces back and forth a bit thanks to the engineered holes, which effectively turn the beams into mirrors. When photons—particles of light—strike the beams, they cause the beams to vibrate. And the particulate nature of the light introduces quantum fluctuations that affect those vibrations.

Typically, such fluctuations mean that in order to get a good reading of a signal, you would have to increase the power of the light to overcome the noise. But by increasing the power you also introduce other problems, such as introducing excess heat into the system.

Ideally, then, any measurements should be made with as low a power as possible. "One way to do that," says Safavi-Naeini, "is to use light that has less noise."

And that's exactly what the new system does; it has been engineered so that the light and beams interact strongly with each other—so strongly, in fact, that the beams impart the quantum fluctuations they experience back on the light. And, as is the case with the noise-canceling technology used, for example, in some headphones, the fluctuations that shake the beams interfere with the fluctuations of the light. They effectively cancel each other out, eliminating the noise in the light.

"This is a demonstration of what quantum mechanics really says: Light is neither a particle nor a wave; you need both explanations to understand this experiment," says Safavi-Naeini. "You need the particle nature of light to explain these quantum fluctuations, and you need the wave nature of light to understand this interference."

In the experiment, a detector measuring the noise in the light as a function of frequency showed that in a frequency range centered around 28 MHz, the system produces light with less noise than what is present in a vacuum—the standard quantum limit. "But one of the interesting things," Safavi-Naeini adds, "is that by carefully designing our structures, we can actually choose the frequency at which we go below the vacuum." Many signals are specific to a particular frequency range—a certain audio band in the case of acoustic signals, or, in the case of LIGO, a frequency intimately related to the dynamics of astrophysical objects such as circling black holes. Because the optical squeezing occurs near the mechanical resonance frequency where an individual device is most sensitive to external forces, this feature would enable the system studied by the Caltech team to be optimized for targeting specific signals.

"This new way of 'squeezing light' in a silicon micro-device may provide new, significant applications in sensor technology," said Siu Au Lee, program officer at the National Science Foundation, which provided support for the work through the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, a Physics Frontier Center. "For decades, NSF's Physics Division has been supporting basic research in quantum optics, precision measurements and nanotechnology that laid the foundation for today's accomplishments."

INFORMATION:

The paper is titled "Squeezed light from a silicon micromechanical resonator." Along with Painter and Safavi-Naeini, additional coauthors on the paper include current and former Painter-group researchers Jeff Hill (PhD '13), Simon Gröblacher (both lead authors on the paper with Safavi-Naeini), and Jasper Chan (PhD '12), as well as Markus Aspelmeyer of the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology and the University of Vienna. The work was also supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, by DARPA/MTO ORCHID through a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and by the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Scientists use genome sequencing to prove herbal remedy causes upper urinary tract cancers

2013-08-08
Genomic sequencing experts at Johns Hopkins partnered with pharmacologists at Stony Brook University to reveal a striking mutational signature of upper urinary tract cancers caused by aristolochic acid, a plant compound contained in herbal remedies used for thousands of years to treat a variety of ailments such as arthritis, gout and inflammation. Their discovery is described in the Aug. 7 issue of Science Translational Medicine. Aristolochic [pronounced a-ris-to-lo-kik] acid is found in the plant family "Aristolochia," a vine known widely as birthwort, and while the ...

A complex story behind genes, environment, diabetes and obesity

2013-08-08
While it is well known that there is a strong genetic basis to both diabetes and obesity, and that they are linked, Australian researchers say that there are many rare genetic variants involved, which will pose a significant challenge in the quest to develop effective therapies. Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder that occurs when the body becomes less able to produce and use insulin effectively, a hormone essential for maintaining normal metabolism of food. The disorder is commonly associated with a high-sugar, high-fat diet combined with lack of exercise. A ...

Motional layers in the brain

2013-08-08
This news release is available in German. Recognising movement and its direction is one of the first and most important processing steps in any visual system. By this way, nearby predators or prey can be detected and even one's own movements are controlled. More than fifty years ago, a mathematical model predicted how elementary motion detectors must be structured in the brain. However, which nerve cells perform this job and how they are actually connected remained a mystery. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have now come one ...

Making connections in the eye

2013-08-08
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- The human brain has 100 billion neurons, connected to each other in networks that allow us to interpret the world around us, plan for the future, and control our actions and movements. MIT neuroscientist Sebastian Seung wants to map those networks, creating a wiring diagram of the brain that could help scientists learn how we each become our unique selves. In a paper appearing in the Aug. 7 online edition of Nature, Seung and collaborators at MIT and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Germany have reported their first step toward this goal: ...

NASA sees 10-mile-high thunderstorms in Hurricane Henriette

2013-08-08
VIDEO: This 3-D image (looking toward the east) from TRMM PR data reveals that towering storms in the northeastern side of Henriette's eye were reaching height of almost 16.75km (~10.41 miles).... Click here for more information. NASA's TRMM satellite peered into the clouds of Hurricane Henriette as is continues moving through the Eastern Pacific Ocean, and found powerful thunderstorms that topped 10 miles high. The higher the thunderstorms are, the more powerful the uplift ...

NASA satellite sees Tropical Storm Mangkhut making Vietnam landfall

2013-08-08
Tropical Storm Mangkhut had some strong thunderstorms around its center as it began making landfall in northern Vietnam on Aug. 7. Infrared data from NASA's Aqua satellite showed very cold cloud top temperatures of those strong thunderstorms as it passed overhead. On Aug. 6 at 20:55 UTC (4:55 p.m. EDT) NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Mangkhut as it tracked west-northwest through the Gulf of Tonkin on its way to a landfall. Aqua's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument captured infrared data that showed that cloud top temperatures of some thunderstorms around ...

DNA nanorobots find and tag cellular targets

2013-08-08
NEW YORK, NY (August 7, 2013) — Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, working with their collaborators at the Hospital for Special Surgery, have created a fleet of molecular "robots" that can home in on specific human cells and mark them for drug therapy or destruction. The nanorobots—a collection of DNA molecules, some attached to antibodies —were designed to seek a specific set of human blood cells and attach a fluorescent tag to the cell surfaces. Details of the system were published July 28, 2013, in the online edition of Nature Nanotechnology. "This ...

New research suggests glaucoma screenings for sleep apnea sufferers

2013-08-08
SAN FRANCISCO – August 7, 2013 – Researchers in Taiwan have discovered that people with sleep apnea are far more likely to develop glaucoma compared to those without the sleep condition. The results of this study, which is the first to calculate the risk of the disease among people with the sleep disorder following diagnosis, is published in this month's edition of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Conducted by researchers at Taipei Medical University, the retrospective study, "Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Increased Risk of Glaucoma," ...

Cognitive decline with age is normal, routine -- but not inevitable

2013-08-08
CORVALLIS, Ore. – If you forget where you put your car keys and you can't seem to remember things as well as you used to, the problem may well be with the GluN2B subunits in your NMDA receptors. And don't be surprised if by tomorrow you can't remember the name of those darned subunits. They help you remember things, but you've been losing them almost since the day you were born, and it's only going to get worse. An old adult may have only half as many of them as a younger person. Research on these biochemical processes in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State ...

Infrared NASA image revealed fading Gil's warming cloud tops

2013-08-08
As cloud tops fall, their temperature rises, and infrared data from NASA's Aqua satellite saw that happening as Tropical Storm Gil weakened. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument captured an infrared picture of Tropical Storm Gil on Aug. 6 at 22:59 UTC (6:59 p.m. EDT). The AIRS data showed that cloud top temperatures had warmed since the day before, indicating that the thunderstorms that make up the tropical cyclone didn't have as much punch, or uplift to form more powerful storms. AIRS imagery is false-colored to show temperature and is created at NASA's ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Resistance training may improve nerve health, slow aging process, study shows

Common and inexpensive medicine halves the risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer

SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events

Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design

New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients

Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?

Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain

Decoding plants’ language of light

UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC

New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury

New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows

Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5

In the wild, chimpanzees likely ingest the equivalent of several alcoholic drinks every day

Warming of 2°C intensifies Arctic carbon sink but weakens Alpine sink, study finds

Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production

Indian adolescents are mostly starting their periods at an earlier age than 25 years ago

Temporary medical centers in Gaza known as "Medical Points" (MPs) treat an average of 117 people daily with only about 7 staff per MP

Rates of alcohol-induced deaths among the general population nearly doubled from 1999 to 2024

PLOS One study: In adolescent lab animals exposed to cocaine, High-Intensity Interval Training boosts aversion to the drug

Scientists identify four ways our bodies respond to COVID-19 vaccines

Stronger together: A new fusion protein boosts cancer immunotherapy

Hidden brain waves as triggers for post-seizure wandering

Music training can help the brain focus

Researcher develop the first hydride ion prototype battery

MIT researchers find a more precise way to edit the genome

‘Teen’ pachycephalosaur butts into fossil record

Study finds cocoa extract supplement reduced key marker of inflammation and aging

Obesity treatment with bariatric surgery vs GLP-1 receptor agonists

Nicotinamide for skin cancer chemoprevention

[Press-News.org] Caltech team produces squeezed light using a silicon micromechanical system