Scientists Record Quantum Behavior of Electrons Via Laser Lights

An anonymous reader writes in with news about a breakthrough in recording quantum behavior in electrons. A group of researchers has said that they have come up with a new method to record and control electron behavior at the quantum mechanical level. The research team, headed by the scientists at the University of Chicago, used laser lights in ultra-fast pulses for the experiment. The laser light controlled the quantum state of electrons. It contained inside nanoscale defects in a diamond. The researchers observed changes in that electron over a time period. They focused on the quantum mechanical property of electrons known as spin. Lead author David Awschalom, a molecular engineering professor at a university in Chicago, said, "These defects have attracted great interest of the scientists over the past decade. They provide a test-bed system for developing semiconductor quantum bits as well as nanoscale sensors."

4.4 trillion

[emagery]

Now just combine this, in some way, with that new 4.4 trillion FPS camera some other scientists recently invented.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, we duct taped them together. Now what?

And before you ask, no, the tape isn't sticking to the shark very well.

Total information awareness

[Smallpond]

We now can tell exactly how fast this electron is going. Unfortunately, now we can't find it.

Is it just me?

[caffeinated_bunsen]

Or does anybody else feel like the summary came straight from the Simple English Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]?

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[Netdoctor]

No, it's not just you. It's horribly written.

From the comments:

Dave Shepherd 2 hours ago

This article is poorly written. It is full of grammatical errors and does not read well. The news item deserves better, as do the researchers.

Re:

[darenw]

How does one downvote, flag, or throw a rotten tomato at this badly written submission? It must be removed so that Slashdot's high reputation for accuracy, insight, and scientific relevance is not tarnished.

Re:

[darenw]

Ooop, sorry for my doing at good english! I meanted to say:

How one to downvote, flag, and throw it rotten tomato to at badly writtened submission? It must. Be removed Slashdot's highly reputatation for the accuracy, incite, and scietific relevance not isn't tarnished.

Heisenberg?

[MorphOSX]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the act of observing the quantum behavior of the electron necessarily change it? I thought one of the fuzzy things about anything "quantum", other than "quantum bullshit", was that its state/behavior is not finite unless observed directly, thus causing it to collapse into a specific state? Or do I have that wrong?

"Laser Light"?

[Forthan Red]

Anyone else find the term "laser light" to be odd, or at least redundant? Last time I checked, the "L" in laser stood for "Light". It's a bit like calling an ATM an "ATM machine", or when TV's Mr. Monk said, "it made me LOL out loud."

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[StripedCow]

An "ATM machine" is a machine from which you can withdraw ATMs.

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[DMUTPeregrine]

It's just a typical case of PNS syndrome.

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[Ceriel Nosforit]

They do it in order to address an audience with a varying background. For this purpose it is actually an excellent literary technique since most readers who are familiar with the subject will just gloss it over while the laymen are still able to get the gist of things.

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[Anonymous Coward]

I believe "LASER" stands for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation".

So "laser" would be a process, not the light created, and "the laser" is the apparatus that uses that process, and "laser light" is the light emitted by the laser.

On the matter of electrons

[Ceriel Nosforit]

Electrons have 'spin'. Electrons also have an electric field. Do electrons have a magnetic field? - Yes they do. An electron's magnetic field is its 'spin'.

Why even call it 'spin'? Back in the day the function of magnetism was explained with the 'turtles all the way down' analogy of 'elementary magnets' meaning they didn't have a clue and possibly did not want to admit ignorance.

Today we know that this elementary magnet is the property of an electron spinning on an axis just like a planet does. It can not s

Re:

[Ceriel Nosforit]

Writing in mild anger, I did not expect a reply, so thanks!

I should have specified 'magnetism in permanent magnet'.

Stimulated emission is the interaction of an incoming photon with the electron before and during transition, not with the soon to be emitted photon.

I read a claim on a .edu that an incident photon can stimulate emission even before it passes an electron. Then when I parroted this information, someone said this was false. - As a student I did not anticipate controversy.

Magnetic fields will contribute to local energy density and bend space gravitationally as a result as would anything else that contributes to mass-energy density.

I'm referring to the much stronger force which you can vividly feel when you hold one magnet in each of your hands and move them close to each other. - I intended to make an

By definition, isn't this impossible???

[franblets]

Isn't it assumed that the state changes on observation?

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[micahraleigh]

Someone won a nobel 2 years ago for using a laser to "observe" the electron vector without influencing anything.