Photons in the microwave frequency range are important
in quantum research - for quantum information processors, for example.
Now, for the first time, researchers have achieved the controlled
production of single photons in the microwave region and successfully
detected them with highly sensitive measuring instruments - although
they are 100,000 times weaker than the photons emitted by an electric
light bulb.
When photons released by a conventional light or radiation source hit a detector, they trigger an electrical signal
comparable to a single “click” of a Geiger counter, which rattles when
radioactive particles strike it. However, unlike optical photons, until
now there have been no detectors that can detect single photons at
particularly low frequencies, such as the microwave frequency range. The
intensity of these microwave photons is much too weak for this. The
research group led by ETH Zurich Professor Andreas Wallraff from the
Department of Physics has now been able to characterise such
low-intensity photons even without any “clicking” detectors by using a
special apparatus and method. Physicists need techniques of this kind,
for example to research the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics
or to enable efficient information transmission in optical data
communication. PHYSORG
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