Researchers Develop Quantum Cats from Light

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have developed quantum cats that are made of particles of light.

These quantum cats are developed to advance new ways of light manipulation, for improving communications, computing, and precision measurements based on quantum physics.

The experiments conducted by the NIST researchers produced light pulses repeatedly, with each pulse possessing two opposite properties. This is called by the physicists as optical Schrödinger's cat. The quantum cat developed by NIST is the first of its kind to be produced with the detection of three photons simultaneously. This quantum cat is one of the well-defined and largest cat states produced from light.

The researchers used an ultrafast laser pulse for exciting special crystals, to generate a form of light called squeezed vacuum, and thus created the optical cat state. The squeezed vacuum consisted of photons in even numbers. A particular number of photons were deducted from the vacuum with the use of a beam splitter. A NIST sensor was used to detect these photons.