Modulated quantum meta-surfaces can be used to control all the properties of photonic quitResearchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) believe. This insight may influence the development of quantum communication, computer science, imaging systems, and energy harvesting. You can read the details of the research in the pages Physical Review Letters.

Research on classic meta-surfaces has been done for a long time. However, we came up with the idea of ​​modulating the optical properties of quantum meta-surfaces in time and space. This allows for the manipulative manipulation of a single photon, the smallest particle of light, Says Diego Dolwitz of the Content Matter and Complex Systems Group at Lanle’s Theory Department.

Meta-surfaces are ultra-thin surfaces that allow you to handle light in a way that normally does not have surfaces. The team from Los Alamos created a meta-surface that looks like a collection of crosses rotating in different directions. Crosses can be operated with a laser or electric pulse. A single photon passing through such a meta-surface enters the superposition of several colors, states, and paths of motion, creating a quantum trapped state. In this case, it means that the photon can infer all the properties simultaneously.

By modulating such a meta-surface with a laser or electric pulse, we can control the frequency of a single photon and change the angle of its reflection and the direction or spin of its electric field., dodaje Abul Azad z Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies.

By manipulating these features, we gain the ability to store information on photons.

Scientists are also working on modulated quantum meta-surfaces to extract photons from a vacuum. Quantum vacuum is not empty. It is full of virtual photons. On a modulated quantum meta-surface, you can effectively capture these photons and convert them into real pairs of photons.Wilton Court-Camp explains.

Taking photons out of a vacuum and shooting them in one direction will create an ust energy in the opposite direction. Therefore, thanks to meta-surfaces and small amounts of energy, it is possible to use structural light to generate mechanical energy in the future.

Light photon meta-surface