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Using photons to disseminate encryption codes with complete security is one of the great successes of quantum information science. It has now been shown that long-distance cryptographic communication is just as effective when the scheme involves measuring the wave properties of light, rather than its particle properties.
A convenient optical scheme for compressing the bandwidth and tuning the frequency of single photons could allow photon qubits to be used in matter-based quantum memories. This development is also an important step towards arbitrary waveform generation of quantum states of light.
Experiments with a quantum simulator made from an integrated optical circuit reveal that bosons and fermions react to disorder in different ways, experiencing different strengths of Anderson localization.
The combination of ultrasound and optics, together with statistics, now permits light focusing and imaging deep inside strongly scattering media at the optical diffraction limit.
Despite great efforts to develop silicon-based optoelectronic devices, efficient photon emission from silicon still remains an elusive goal. Nanocavities could offer a path towards efficient silicon light emitters through strong optical confinement.
The isolated symmetry points of photonic graphene are unstable in three dimensions. Researchers have now proposed topologically robust points by using minimal surfaces and employing symmetry-breaking ideas from quantum field theory.
A single ion embedded in a high-finesse optical cavity can now transfer its qubit state to a single photon, which is an important stepping stone towards the implementation of ion-based quantum networks.
AIP/ACOFT 2012 was last year's biggest and most diverse scientific meeting in the Australian physics calendar. Optics and photonics dominated; although traditional Australian strengths like quantum optics and X-ray science were well represented, there were some shifts to other fields.
While historically considered as a great nuisance, disordered structures which scatter light are now yielding a wealth of applications in photonics, such as the creation of random lasers, the study of Anderson localization or the design of broadband reflection coatings. This Review artilce summarizes the opportunities explored to date.
The Anderson localization of light within disordered media has become a topic of great interest in recent years. Here the characterization of the effect and its related phenomena are reviewed, with a discussion on the role that nonlinearity and quantum correlated photons can play.
The optical characteristics and applications of the quasicrystal, a special form of aperiodic engineered structure, are explored in this Review article.
The report of a quantum receiver that can distinguish quadrature-phase-shifted keyed signals with an error rate beyond the standard quantum limit bodes well for improving the performance of coherent optical communication systems.
A holographic microscope capable of dynamically imaging unstained living cells at resolutions beyond the diffraction limit could prove extremely useful for studying biological cells.
Using strain to induce a pseudomagnetic field in a photonic lattice at optical frequencies might bring improvements to fields such as photonic crystal fibres, supercontinuum generation and frequency combs.
