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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Physicists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and Royal Holloway, University of London, have demonstrated an effect known as quantum wave mixing on an artificial atom [phys.org]. Their results, published in the journal Nature Communications, could help develop quantum electronics of an entirely new kind.

Researchers from MIPT's Laboratory of Artificial Quantum Systems led by Professor Oleg Astafiev teamed up with their British colleagues to examine a superconducting quantum system, which is physically equivalent to a single atom. Cooled to ultra-low temperatures, this device emitted and absorbed a single quanta of microwave radiation—the same way that an atom interacts with photons of light.

Artificial atoms, which are at the heart of this study, are a staple of quantum optics experiments. Physicists use these systems to investigate the processes that are otherwise hard to study, such as the emission and absorption of several photons. Whereas a real atom in a mirror cavity emits light in an arbitrary direction, a superconducting system radiates in a controlled way. This enabled the authors to detect the scattering of several light quanta on an artificial atom, or wave mixing.

In the output of the system described above, the researchers observed both source radiation and electromagnetic waves resulting from its interaction with the artificial atom. The frequencies of these waves were determined by the nature of the excitation involved. This pointed to the effect of quantum wave mixing, which had not been observed in systems of this kind before.

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