Scientific highlight by Alexia Auffèves

How do light and matter exchange energy down to the quantum scales? New insights from quantum photonics

When two quantum systems are coupled, they can exchange energy in two ways: either by exerting a force on each other, or by getting entangled. We respectively dub these energy exchanges “unitary energy” and “correlation energy”. Here we characterize experimentally and theoretically these energy flows, first between a qubit and a light field, then between two fields coupled via a beam splitter. This close collaboration between the MajuLab and the C2N contributes to build new energetic concepts adapted to  quantum computing with photons.

Figure caption: An illustration of the energy exchanges taking place during the experiment. Credit: I. Maillette de Buy Wenniger.