Tornado-like vortexes can be produced in bizarre fluids which are controlled by quantum mechanics, completely unlike normal liquids. New research published in the journal Nature Communications demonstrates how massed ranks of these quantum twisters line up in rows, and paves the way for engineering quantum circuits and chips measuring motion ultra-precisely.
The destructive power of rampaging tornadoes defeats the human ability to control them. A Cambridge University team has managed to create and control hundreds of tiny twisters on a semiconductor chip. By controlling where electrons move and how they interact with light the team created a marriage of electrons and photons that form a new quantum particle called a ‘polariton’.
The results come from a collaboration between the experimental team in the NanoPhotonics Centre led by Professor Jeremy Baumberg and the theoretical quantum fluids group of Dr Natalia Berloff.
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Image: Polariton quantum rivers flow from four hills creating quantum tornadoes in the valley
Image Credit: Natasha Berloff from DAMTP
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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The dance of quantum tornadoes
5 December 2012
A quantum fluid trapped on top of a semiconductor chip can be used to measure movements to astonishing precision.