In quantum technologies, everything depends on the ability to detect the properties carried by a single photon. But in the real world, that photon of interest is often buried in a sea of unwanted light — a true “needle in a haystack” challenge that currently limits the deployment of many applications, including secure quantum communication, quantum sensors used in telescope networks, as well as the interconnection of quantum computers to accelerate the development of new drugs and materials.

 

At the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), the team of Professor José Azaña, in collaboration with Professor Roberto Morandotti’s group, has developed a surprisingly simple and energy‑efficient way to overcome this obstacle. The work was carried out by Benjamin Crockett during his PhD at the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre. He recently completed his degree and is now a Banting postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Their method not only reduces noise but, more importantly, recovers essential quantum properties that would otherwise be lost in bright environments where current technologies fail. The team’s findings were published in Science Advances.

A new squeezed phonon laser developed by researchers at the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology provides precise control over phonons at the nanoscale level. This could give new insights into the nature of gravity, particle acceleration, and quantum physics.

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a highly promising large-area, high-throughput manufacturing technique that transfers nanoscale patterns through a mold replication-imprint-demolding process. Yet defects introduced during demolding are often unavoidable and can compromise device reliability. Now, teams from China and Singapore report a strategy in Science Bulletin that integrates NIL with topological protection to realize visible‑band nanolaser devices that remain stable even in the presence of defects or disorder.

A group lead by Prof. Martin Baumgarten, Prof. Paul Blom, and Dr. Yungui Li from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has developed a novel organic emitter featuring simultaneous prompt fluorescence (PF, ns), thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF, μs), and room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP, ms) by verifying the key role of the second triplet state (T₂). This work develops an organic emitter with high RTP quantum yield of 33.6%, published in Light: Science & Applications.

Six partners from research and industry, including Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), the Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI), BASF, Dunia Innovations, Siemens Energy, and the Technical University Berlin are launching a joint project to accelerate the catalyst discovery. The German Federal Ministry for Science, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is providing €30 million in funding for ASCEND (Accelerated Solutions for Catalysis using Emerging Nanotechnology and Digital Innovation). The research initiative targets the defossilisation of energy-intensive industries while safeguarding industrial competitiveness, with a focus on the chemical sector. The five-year project will start on 1^st April 2026.

Quantum physicists at ANU have observed atoms entangled in motion.

“It’s really weird for us to think that this is how the Universe works,” says Dr Sean Hodgman from the ANU Research School of Physics. “You can read about it in a textbook, but it’s really weird to think that a particle can be in two places at once.”