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Attractive photons in a quantum nonlinear medium

Overview of attention for article published in Nature, September 2013
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (97th percentile)

Citations

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354 Dimensions

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mendeley
659 Mendeley
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3 CiteULike
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Title
Attractive photons in a quantum nonlinear medium
Published in
Nature, September 2013
DOI 10.1038/nature12512
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ofer Firstenberg, Thibault Peyronel, Qi-Yu Liang, Alexey V. Gorshkov, Mikhail D. Lukin, Vladan Vuletić

Abstract

The fundamental properties of light derive from its constituent particles--massless quanta (photons) that do not interact with one another. However, it has long been known that the realization of coherent interactions between individual photons, akin to those associated with conventional massive particles, could enable a wide variety of novel scientific and engineering applications. Here we demonstrate a quantum nonlinear medium inside which individual photons travel as massive particles with strong mutual attraction, such that the propagation of photon pairs is dominated by a two-photon bound state. We achieve this through dispersive coupling of light to strongly interacting atoms in highly excited Rydberg states. We measure the dynamical evolution of the two-photon wavefunction using time-resolved quantum state tomography, and demonstrate a conditional phase shift exceeding one radian, resulting in polarization-entangled photon pairs. Particular applications of this technique include all-optical switching, deterministic photonic quantum logic and the generation of strongly correlated states of light.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 227 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 659 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 15 2%
Germany 11 2%
United Kingdom 7 1%
Japan 6 <1%
Russia 4 <1%
Spain 4 <1%
China 4 <1%
Netherlands 3 <1%
Korea, Republic of 2 <1%
Other 17 3%
Unknown 586 89%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 203 31%
Researcher 127 19%
Student > Master 75 11%
Student > Bachelor 53 8%
Professor 36 5%
Other 116 18%
Unknown 49 7%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Physics and Astronomy 473 72%
Engineering 34 5%
Chemistry 29 4%
Materials Science 21 3%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 9 1%
Other 30 5%
Unknown 63 10%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 569. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 June 2023.
All research outputs
#42,006
of 25,551,063 outputs
Outputs from Nature
#3,626
of 98,232 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#213
of 215,847 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature
#28
of 1,043 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,551,063 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 98,232 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 102.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 215,847 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 1,043 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.