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Quantum Camera On a Silicon Chip

Posted by timothy on from the tech-mad-libs-or-buzzword-bingo dept.

stefanparvu14 writes "Physicists in Switzerland and California have developed a new type of camera capable of imaging quantum correlations between pairs of photons. The details are presented in the current issue of the open-access publication New Journal of Physics. Unlike a conventional camera with a CCD imager, this camera is composed of Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) pixels implemented on a high-performance CMOS chip. One of the authors has provided more background for the non-physicist. Apparently, it could be used to verify the existence of Bose-Einstein condensates that are now starting to be produced in new ways."

6 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. No picture with the aricle ... by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because sometimes the camera is there ... and sometimes it isn't.

  2. Re:The first link... by alfrin · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...to this page while interesting on its own, doesn't appear relevant to the article.

    Notice the URL. Notice who posted the article.

  3. Re:Unless I missunderstand the scale... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're already observing the photons and yes, it sure does change them. They're absorbed.

    The difference here is that instead of just noting that "oh, yup, a photon was absorbed," you detect whether or not a pair of photons was absorbed at the same time.

  4. Bose-eisens-who-what?? by gravos · · Score: 4, Informative

    A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter of bosons confined in an external potential and cooled to temperatures very near to absolute zero. Bosons are just elementary particles which obey Bose-Einstein statistics. Bose-Einstein statistics determine the statistical distribution of identical, indistinguishable bosons over the energy states in thermal equilibrium.

    Confused yet? Me too.

    --
    This game will waste your life. Don't clicky!
    1. Re:Bose-eisens-who-what?? by bh_doc · · Score: 4, Interesting

      A single particle in a confinement, with all the thermal energy removed, is distributed like a wave. That is, you're more likely to find the particle in the middle than at the edges. There's a formula for it (square of a sin, IIRC).

      Bosons can all exist in the same state in the same place.

      Couple these two facts, and you have a BEC. Basically, put a bunch of bosons in a box, turn the temperature way (way way) down, and you get this neat fuzzy blob of stuff, each particle in (or near) the "ground" (lowest energy) state, denser in the middle than at the edges, that's neither gas nor liquid nor solid. (Nor plasma, for the pedantic.)

  5. any condensed matter folks here? by mako1138 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The abstract mentions "confirming the presence of true Bose-Einstein macroscopic coherence (BEC) of cavity exciton polaritons." Can somebody elucidate?