The image shows a planar realization of a random laser that is pumped with incoherent light from the top and emits coherent light in random directions. In a random laser, light is confined to a gain medium not by conventional mirrors but by random multiple scattering. More Info
The interaction between single atoms and the electromagnetic field can be enhanced using a cavity, the signature of strong coupling being ‘vacuum Rabi splitting’. An experiment in which a superconducting circuit acts as an ‘artificial atom’ explores the physics beyond this linear-response effect and shows how nonlinear phenomena lead to the rich structure of the cavity transmission peaks shown here. More Info
A graphical representation of the quantum state in the new Yale device. Error correction for quantum data bits is exceptionally difficult because of the nature of the quantum state. Unlike the “classical” state of either zero or one, the quantum state can be a zero, a one, or a superposition of both zero and one. Furthermore, the quantum state is so fragile that the act of observing it will cause a qubit to revert back to a classical state. More Info