An ion trap helped create a quantum defect in two places at once
BY ANDREW BROOKES, NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY/SCIENCE PHOTOGRAPHY
Exotic quantum rifts are created with charged atoms, and exist in a superposition of being in two places at once. This is the first step towards a better understanding of the behavior of quantum defects from materials to the entire universe.
Defects are ubiquitous (think tears in fabrics or hazy defects in sparkling crystals), but in quantum systems they can have the additional property of being topological. This means that the overall structure…
