quantum institute

(National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) Researchers from NIST and the Joint Quantum Institute have reported a new way to fine-tune the light coming from quantum dots by manipulating them with pairs of lasers.

Their technique could significantly improve quantum dots as a source of pairs of entangled photons for applications in quantum information technologies.

Using a system that can compare the travel times of two photons with sub-femtosecond precision, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute and Georgetown University have found a remarkably large difference in the time it takes photons to pass through nearly identical stacks of materials with different arrangements of refractive layers.

The technique could provide an empirical answer to a long-standing puzzle over how fast light crosses narrow gaps that do not permit the passage of conventional electromagnetic waves.