Real-time recording of quantum uncertainty has been achieved by scientists using ultrafast squeezed light.

Quantum mechanics just got a major upgrade

A team of international researchers led by Dr Mohammed Th. Hassan, University of Arizona, have for the first time in history, seen and controlled in real time the fundamental quantum uncertainty principle. Reported in the journal Light: Science & Applications, this scientific breakthrough moves away from our conventional thinking of quantum uncertainty as a fixed limitation to redefining and treating it as a tuneable, dynamic quantity and a new quantum resource. In other words, the research team at the University of Arizona, the ICFO in Spain and the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München in Germany have successfully captured, in attosecond resolution (10⁻¹⁸ seconds) and in real time, the evolution of quantum uncertainty.

Meet the new uncertainty

At the core of this new discovery is ultrafast squeezed light. The new report from the University of Arizona shows how the team generated the shortest quantum-synthesized light waveforms ever produced using a highly nonlinear four-wave mixing process. These new pulses, with frequencies ranging from 0.33 to 0.73 PHz, differ from regular light since instead of splitting uncertainty evenly between conjugate variables, squeezed light waves’ properties are distorted such that the quantum noise is squeezed in one variable. This results in a reduction of uncertainty in one conjugate property at the expense of a larger uncertainty in its conjugate.

Changing the rules

Quantum uncertainty and its consequent implications are familiar to the scientific community from Heisenberg’s well-known uncertainty principle. Heisenberg showed that one cannot simultaneously know the precise location and momentum of a quantum object like an electron. But the team from the University of Arizona is overturning our expectations as they have shown that quantum uncertainty can be continuously controlled in real-time in a lab. By using ultrafast squeezed light in attosecond time resolution, the researchers could for the first time observe in real-time the changes of quantum uncertainty.

Harnessing uncertainty

The team has experimentally proved, through advanced metrology techniques, that they could track the dynamics of uncertainty in real-time. Amplitude uncertainty was tracked as it was evolving. So instead of being a static uncertainty limitation, it is a dynamic, controllable and tunable quantity.

Uses and value

Since ultrafast squeezed light is used to carry information, one major future use of the new discovery is that it will be applied in future secure quantum communications at ultra-fast speed. In the future, quantum networks will see a step change in their bit rates and transmission distances. This report shows the possibility of an attosecond quantum encryption protocol at petahertz scale. Petahertz is greater than 10¹⁵ Hz or a million billion times per second. Quantum computing and devices with attosecond operating speed can also benefit from this new report since the real-time control of quantum uncertainty dynamics is a critical first step to quantum devices that operate at attosecond timescales. The information encoded in squeezed light also means that future quantum secure communications could see applications beyond quantum computers. This could mean ultra-sensitive quantum sensors for future applications in navigation and astronomy, better medical imaging and sensing for future healthcare systems, and ultra-sensitive measurement systems.

The controlled generation and application of squeezed light are also already seeing experimental applications in gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO where the precise measurements they take can be pushed to lower limits.

Science and new discovery significance

Quantum uncertainty was usually treated as a static quantity since it had been thought that it could not be directly measured and observed. In a sense, this new report is re-examining one of the quantum postulates or even its measurement theory. The researchers have shown by carefully designing and implementing state-of-the-art photonic circuits integrated with femtosecond laser systems that squeezed light can be used to provide continuous control of quantum uncertainty in real-time. The researchers were able to use this new information to track in real-time quantum state’s amplitude uncertainty dynamics. Using their integrated photonic circuits and femtosecond laser systems, the team has shown the path towards the experimental demonstration of platforms that could be directly useful for quantum communications. The new work, a first of its kind, will have a significant impact in the near and distant future on quantum communications research and possible commercial developments. Furthermore, this new discovery by the team from the University of Arizona, the ICFO in Spain and the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München in Germany, will advance us as a society a step closer to a commercial quantum internet.

Value and market

The global quantum technology market will generate revenues of $30 billion by 2035 across the world with quantum computing taking the biggest share of the market, $15 billion, followed by quantum software and services at $12 billion. We have been hearing a lot about quantum computers. Quantum advantage has been predicted for the late 2020s, but this new discovery could fast-track this prediction by a few years or a decade.

Value propositions

Quantum uncertainty, which has mostly been thought to be a technical limitation has now been captured and treated as a controllable and manipulable resource in real-time.

Some of the significant benefits that this new research will bring about in the coming years will be:

• Unhackable future quantum encryption protocol at petahertz scale that is going to be required for ultra-fast quantum internet.
• Future scientific discoveries from faster and more sensitive quantum computers for practical future applications, such as drug discovery, materials sciences, financial and climate modeling, and agriculture.
• Ultra-sensitive quantum sensors that will find application in future medicine and manufacturing and even astronomy and navigation.
• Possible enhanced gravitational wave detection capability will be useful to mankind for future scientific discovery.
• The next important point that also needs to be emphasized is scalability. The seamless and stable integration of the ultrafast laser system with the photonic circuits goes a long way to showing that the research team has demonstrated the first step toward the experimental demonstration of a viable platform for building quantum communication devices and possibly other quantum devices.

The future is quantum

Dr Hassan, the lead researcher at the University of Arizona, has not hidden his excitement about this new research, with the hope that it will become a new field of study. Ultrafast quantum science as Dr Hassan put it. He added that they are at the start of an ultrafast quantum internet. The need to be thinking about and be building platforms and technologies that have attosecond timing synchronization which could only be achieved through the work being done by the team. Fundamental new knowledge of nature and the ability to design and build the future ultrafast quantum internet using advanced and scalable systems. This is the future that we are moving towards.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Obumneme Abasili Ph. D, DBA, MBA, CCA™ is the Founder and Visionary Leader of Jabez Grace CloudTech Solutions Ltd, a trailblazing technology consultancy that specializes in providing cutting-edge cloud solutions, artificial intelligence (AI), digital marketing and project management. With an advanced academic background that includes a Ph. D in Information Technology, DBA, and MBA with a specialization in AI and Deep Machine Learning, Dr Abasili possesses a profound understanding of emerging technologies and their real-world applications.

As a certified cloud architect and AI expert, Dr Andy Abasili has established Jabez Grace CloudTech Solutions Ltd as a trusted partner for enterprise cloud migrations, digital marketing solutions, project management and digital transformation initiatives. The company offers comprehensive services across leading cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, and also provides cutting-edge AI consulting and project management services.

Dr Andy Abasili’s interdisciplinary expertise spans cloud technology architecture, AI implementation, digital marketing and project management frameworks, and research methodology. Through his leadership at Jabez Grace CloudTech Solutions Ltd, he continues to drive innovation at the nexus of cloud computing and AI, empowering organizations to navigate the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

His commitment to advancing technology adoption and education is evident in his ongoing research activities, professional certifications, and thought leadership in emerging technology trends that shape the future of business and scientific discovery.

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