Controlling coherent interaction between optical fields and quantum systems in scalable, integrated platforms is essential for quantum technologies. A German-British research team has developed an on-chip hollow-core light cage that could provide a platform for quantum-storage and quantum-nonlinear applications. Showing stable non-degrading performance and extreme versatility, the laterally accessible light cage could be a compelling candidate for all-on-chip, integrable, low-cost, vapor-based photon delay.
Scientists have gained the best view yet of the brightest explosions in the universe: A specialised observatory in Namibia has recorded the most energetic radiation and longest gamma-ray afterglow of a so-called gamma-ray burst to date. The observations with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) challenge the idea of how gamma-rays are produced in these colossal stellar explosions which are the birth cries of black holes, as the international team reports in the journal Science.
Samara Polytech chemists have prepared a large review of methods for producing chromanes and chromenes, developed by both leading Russian scientists and world-class experts.
Making quantum networks a reality relies crucially on building efficient optical fiber-based quantum light sources. Here, scientists in Germany present an advanced manufacturing approach to accomplish this task. Femtosecond 3D printing is used to create complex micrometer-sized optics to both enhance the single-photon extraction efficiency of semiconductor quantum dots and couple their emission into single-mode optical fibers. This compact on-chip solution enables high coupling efficiency into a single-mode fiber with high-rate single-photon emission.
Astronomers have measured very-high-energy gamma rays coming from the aftermath of a gamma ray burst - an enormously energetic explosion of a star in another galaxy.