Bright Ideas — Creating Ultrafast Movies Of Nano-Processes, A Reflectionless Anti-Laser, What's Up In Rochester, And More

By John Oncea, Editor

Bright Ideas presents the most captivating news and innovations in optics and photonics. This week, we look at the discoveries made by researchers made at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Penn State University, & Kiel University, a couple of honors that were handed out, and more.

Kiel University researchers have developed a new analysis method developed for nano and quantum materials using electron microscopy to create ultrafast movies of nano-processes. “Our concept does not require expensive and complicated lasers and can be easily replicated,” says Nahid Talebi, Professor of Experimental Physics at the CAU. In the experiment described in the current publication, the short light pulses from the sieve-like nanostructures hit the semiconductor sample at the speed of light. Here they excite excitons, so-called quasiparticles. These are electrons that have detached themselves from an atom and are still coupled to the hole they created (electron-hole pairs). “If a short time later the slower electron beam also hits the semiconductor sample, we can see from the reaction of the electrons how the excitons have behaved in the meantime,” explains Talebi. The resulting cathodoluminescence signals from the superposition of the electron beam and the light pulses show a coherent interaction between electrons and photons.

In a new study, researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science make use of this property that a particle is also a wave to develop a new type of tool – the quantum twisting microscope (QTM) – that can create novel quantum materials while simultaneously gazing into the most fundamental quantum nature of their electrons. The study’s findings may be used to create electronic materials with unprecedented functionalities. The QTM involves the twisting of two atomically-thin layers of material with respect to one another. The twist angle turned out to be the most critical parameter for controlling the behavior of electrons: changing it by merely one-tenth of a degree could transform the material from an exotic superconductor into an unconventional insulator. “Our original motivation was to solve this problem by building a machine that could continuously twist any two materials with respect to one another, readily producing an infinite range of novel materials,” says team leader Prof. Shahal Ilani of Weizmann’s Condensed Matter Physics Department. “However, while building this machine, we discovered that it also can be turned into a very powerful microscope, capable of seeing quantum electronic waves in ways that were unimaginable before.”

Researchers led by a team that is part of the Penn State Center for Nanoscale Science (CNS) have developed a new form of heterostructure of layered two-dimensional (2D) materials that may enable quantum computing to overcome key barriers to its widespread application, according to an international team of researchers. “IBM, Google, and others are trying to make and scale up quantum computers based upon superconducting qubits,” said Jun Zhu, Penn State (go Nittany Lions!) professor of physics and corresponding author of the study. "How to minimize the negative effect of a classical environment, which causes error in the operation of a quantum computer, is a key problem in quantum computing.” A solution for this problem may be found in an exotic version of a qubit known as a topological qubit. “Qubits based on topological superconductors are expected to be protected by the topological aspect of the superconductivity and therefore more robust against the destructive effects of the environment,” Zhu said.

Our friends at Optica named Robert Boyd of the University of Ottawa (go Braves!) and the University of Rochester (go ‘Jackets!) as the 2023 Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Prize recipient. Boyd is recognized for pioneering contributions to nonlinear optics, including slow light, quantum imaging, and the development of nanocomposite optical materials and metamaterials. “Bob Boyd is an internationally renowned leader in nonlinear optics whose work has led to critical advances across multiple areas of optics,” said Michal Lipson, Optica's 2023 President. “Congratulations on this well-deserved honor.”

The University of Arkansas (go Razorbacks!) inducted 19 new members — six in the class of 2020, seven in the class of 2021, and six in the class of 2022 – into the Arkansas Academy of Microelectronics-Photonics and Materials Science and Engineering. “One of the most significant outcomes of our annual meeting, other than inducting new members, is to gather feedback from our academy members that are diversely distributed in industry, academia, and federal labs across the nation,” said Matthew Leftwich, director of the graduate program in materials science and engineering. “One of the most noteworthy outcomes from the meeting was a collective and focused discussion regarding how the MSEN Graduate Program, its faculty, and students, the university, the state and ultimately our nation can benefit from upcoming CHIPS federal funding opportunities.”

Physicists have developed an innovative reflectionless “anti-laser” device with applications in photonics, according to Yale News. To analyze if it was possible to avoid reflection and to guide light into chosen output channels, the team combined a special type of controller called metasurface with a theoretical framework — also known as reflectionless scattering modes — that allows for the calculation of device designs which will not produce a reflection. “The answer was a resounding ‘yes,’” said Philipp del Hougne, a researcher at the Université de Rennes 1 and co-author of the study. “We demonstrated excellent performance in the function of separating two signals into different output ports, known as demultiplexing, with an error of one part in 10,000.”

“Nearly a decade ago, state and federal leaders said photonics had the potential to change Rochester and New York State the way that Silicon Valley changed California,” notes WHEC. “Eight years after the announcement and a viewer writes: ‘What ever happened with the photonics lab in Rochester?’” WHEC reports the lab – AIM Photonics, short for the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics – came about when the Department of Defense selected the Rochester area as the location for a Photonics Manufacturing Institute and an investment of hundreds of millions of federal dollars. Today, Tom Battley, executive director of Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster and New York Photonics said, “It was a big project, it still is a big project. It’s still very important for New York State, Rochester, and America. Are we silicon valley yet? No. But this industry is growing and we’re recognized for that around the world. Rochester should be proud of that.”