Quantum Information in Relativity: The Challenge of QFT Measurements

Proposed quantum experiments in deep space will be able to explore quantum information issues in regimes where relativistic effects are important. In this essay, we argue that a proper extension of quantum information theory into the relativistic domain requires the expression of all informational notions in terms of quantum field theoretic (QFT) concepts. This task requires a working and practicable theory of QFT measurements. We present the foundational problems in constructing such a theory, especially in relation to longstanding causality and locality issues in the foundations of QFT. Finally, we present the ongoing Quantum Temporal Probabilities program for constructing a measurement theory that (i) works, in principle, for any QFT, (ii) allows for a first- principles investigation of all relevant issues of causality and locality, and (iii) it can be directly applied to experiments of current interest.     

Tuning infrared absorption in hyperbolic polaritons coated silk fibril composite

Advanced textiles for thermal management give rise to many functional applications and unveil a new frontier for the study of human thermal comfort. Manipulating the coated quasi-particles between the composite components offers a platform to study the advanced thermoregulatory textiles. Here, we propose that coating the hyperbolic polariton can be an effective tool to tune infrared absorption in hexagonal boron nitride-coated silk composite. Remarkably, we achieve significant tuning of the infrared absorption efficiency of silk fibrils through the designed hexagonal boron nitride film. The underlying mechanism is related to resonance coupling between hyperbolic phonon polaritons. We find a notably high infrared absorption efficiency, nearly 3 orders larger than that without hBN coating, which can be achieved in our composite system. Our results indicate the promising future of advanced polariton-coated textiles and open a pathway to guide the artificial-intelligence design of advanced functional textiles.     

Landau quantization and spin polarization of cold magnetized quark matter

The magnetic field and density behaviors of various thermodynamic quantities of strange quark matter under compact star conditions are investigated in the framework of the thermodynamically self-consistent quasiparticle model. For individual species, a larger number density \begin{document}$ n_i $\end{document} leads to a larger magnetic field strength threshold that aligns all particles parallel or antiparallel to the magnetic field. Accordingly, in contrast to the finite baryon density effect which reduces the spin polarization of magnetized strange quark matter, the magnetic field effect leads to an enhancement of it. We also compute the sound velocity as a function of the baryon density and find the sound velocity shows an obvious oscillation with increasing density. Except for the oscillation, the sound velocity grows with increasing density, similar to the zero-magnetic field case, and approaches the conformal limit \begin{document}$ V_s^2=1/3 $\end{document} at high densities from below.     

Mixed noise removal algorithm of EBAPS image under low illumination condition based on FPGA北大核心CSCD

In order to solve the problem that single median filtering and gaussian filtering algorithm is not effective in suppressing impulse noise and poisson noise simultaneously in low illumination image, and the edge detail protection is insufficient, an open and close mix-median-gaussian (OCMMG) filtering algorithm based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) was proposed. Firstly, the minimum four-direction difference was used to detect the anomaly degree of each pixel point, the weight was allocated according to the threshold of pulse noise discrimination, and the first step was filtering. Then, the four-direction edge detection algorithm was used to extract image edges, and the second step was filtered according to the set edge confidence characterization value. Finally, the images collected by electron bombarded active pixel sensor (EBAPS) under the condition of 1×10−3 lx illumination were processed by FPGA in real time. The experimental results show that the FPGA processing results are consistent with the software simulation processing results. Compared with the median filtering and gaussian filtering algorithm, the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of the algorithm is improved by 3.23% and 16.34%, the structural similarity is improved by 14.66% and 33.86%, and the edge retention index is improved by 0.49% and 4.21%, respectively, which can effectively remove the mixed noise of EBAPS image and meet the real-time requirements. © 2022 Editorial office of Journal of Applied Optics. All rights reserved.     

Simultaneous two-way classical communication and measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution on oceanic quantum channels

Simultaneous two-way classical and quantum (STCQ) communication combines both continuous classical coherent optical communication and continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD), which eliminates all detection-related imperfections by being measurement-device-independent (MDI). In this paper, we propose a protocol relying on STCQ communication on the oceanic quantum channel, in which the superposition-modulation-based coherent states depend on the information bits of both the secret key and the classical communication ciphertext. We analyse the encoding combination in classical communication and consider the probability distribution transmittance under seawater turbulence with various interference factors. Our numerical simulations of various practical scenarios demonstrate that the proposed protocol can simultaneously enable two-way classical communication and CV-MDI QKD with just a slight performance degradation transmission distance compared to the original CV-MDI QKD scheme. Moreover, the asymmetric situation outperforms the symmetric case in terms of transmission distance and optical modulation variance. We further take into consideration the impact of finite-size effects to illustrate the applicability of the proposed scheme in practical scenarios. The results show the feasibility of the underwater STCQ scheme, which contributes toward developing a global quantum communication network in free space.     

Progress of microscopic thermoelectric effects studied by micro- and nano-thermometric techniques

Heat dissipation is one of the most serious problems in modern integrated electronics with the continuously decreasing devices size. Large portion of the consumed power is inevitably dissipated in the form of waste heat which not only restricts the device energy-efficiency performance itself, but also leads to severe environment problems and energy crisis. Thermoelectric Seebeck effect is a green energy-recycling method, while thermoelectric Peltier effect can be employed for heat management by actively cooling overheated devices, where passive cooling by heat conduction is not sufficiently enough. However, the technological applications of thermoelectricity are limited so far by their very low conversion efficiencies and lack of deep understanding of thermoelectricity in microscopic levels. Probing and managing the thermoelectricity is therefore fundamentally important particularly in nanoscale. In this short review, we will first briefly introduce the microscopic techniques for studying nanoscale thermoelectricity, focusing mainly on scanning thermal microscopy (SThM). SThM is a powerful tool for mapping the lattice heat with nanometer spatial resolution and hence detecting the nanoscale thermal transport and dissipation processes. Then we will review recent experiments utilizing these techniques to investigate thermoelectricity in various nanomaterial systems including both (two-material) heterojunctions and (single-material) homojunctions with tailored Seebeck coefficients, and also spin Seebeck and Peltier effects in magnetic materials. Next, we will provide a perspective on the promising applications of our recently developed Scanning Noise Microscope (SNoiM) for directly probing the non-equilibrium transporting hot charges (instead of lattice heat) in thermoelectric devices. SNoiM together with SThM are expected to be able to provide more complete and comprehensive understanding to the microscopic mechanisms in thermoelectrics. Finally, we make a conclusion and outlook on the future development of microscopic studies in thermoelectrics.     

Thermal conductivity of micro/nano-porous polymers: Prediction models and applications

Micro/nano-porous polymeric material is considered a unique industrial material due to its extremely low thermal conductivity, low density, and high surface area. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an accurate thermal conductivity prediction model suiting their applicable conditions and provide a theoretical basis for expanding their applications. In this work, the development of the calculation model of equivalent thermal conductivity of micro/nano-porous polymeric materials in recent years is summarized. Firstly, it reviews the process of establishing the overall equivalent thermal conductivity calculation model for micro/nanoporous polymers. Then, the predicted calculation models of thermal conductivity are introduced separately according to the conductive and radiative thermal conductivity models. In addition, the thermal conduction part is divided into the gaseous thermal conductivity model, solid thermal conductivity model and gas–solid coupling model. Finally, it is concluded that, compared with other porous materials, there are few studies on heat transfer of micro/ nanoporous polymers, especially on the particular heat transfer mechanisms such as scale effects at the micro/nanoscale. In particular, the following aspects of porous polymers still need to be further studied: micro scaled thermal radiation, heat transfer characteristics of particular morphologies at the nanoscales, heat transfer mechanism and impact factors of micro/nanoporous polymers. Such studies would provide a more accurate prediction of thermal conductivity and a broader application in energy conversion and storage systems.     

Transfer of quantum entangled states between superconducting qubits and microwave field qubits

Transferring entangled states between matter qubits and microwave-field (or optical-field) qubits is of fundamental interest in quantum mechanics and necessary in hybrid quantum information processing and quantum communication. We here propose a way for transferring entangled states between superconducting qubits (matter qubits) and microwave-field qubits. This proposal is realized by a system consisting of multiple superconducting qutrits and microwave cavities. Here, „qutrit” refers to a three-level quantum system with the two lowest levels encoding a qubit while the third level acting as an auxiliary state. In contrast, the microwave-field qubits are encoded with coherent states of microwave cavities. Because the third energy level of each qutrit is not populated during the operation, decoherence from the higher energy levels is greatly suppressed. The entangled states can be deterministically transferred because measurement on the states is not needed. The operation time is independent of the number of superconducting qubits or microwave-field qubits. In addition, the architecture of the circuit system is quite simple because only a coupler qutrit and an auxiliary cavity are required. As an example, our numerical simulations show that high-fidelity transfer of entangled states from two superconducting qubits to two microwave-field qubits is feasible with present circuit QED technology. This proposal is quite general and can be extended to transfer entangled states between other matter qubits (e.g., atoms, quantum dots, and NV centers) and microwave- or optical-field qubits encoded with coherent states.     

Propagation of terahertz waves in nonuniform plasma slab under "electromagnetic window"

The application of magnetic fields, electric fields, and the increase of the electromagnetic wave frequency are up-and-coming solutions for the blackout problem. Therefore, this study considers the influence of the external magnetic field on the electron flow and the effect of the external electric field on the electron density distribution, and uses the scattering matrix method (SMM) to perform theoretical calculations and analyze the transmission behavior of terahertz waves under different electron densities, magnetic field distributions, and collision frequencies. The results show that the external magnetic field can improve the transmission of terahertz waves at the low-frequency end. Magnetizing the plasma from the direction perpendicular to the incident path can optimize the right-hand polarized wave transmission. The external electric field can increase the transmittance to some extent, and the increase of the collision frequency can suppress the right-hand polarized wave cyclotron resonance caused by the external magnetic field. By adjusting these parameters, it is expected to alleviate the blackout phenomenon to a certain extent.     

Fast-switching SOI-LIGBT with compound dielectric buried layer and assistant-depletion trench

A lateral insulated gate bipolar transistor (LIGBT) based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structure is proposed and investigated. This device features a compound dielectric buried layer (CDBL) and an assistant-depletion trench (ADT). The CDBL is employed to introduce two high electric field peaks that optimize the electric field distributions and that, under the same breakdown voltage (BV) condition, allow the CDBL to acquire a drift region of shorter length and a smaller number of stored carriers. Reducing their numbers helps in fast-switching. Furthermore, the ADT contributes to the rapid extraction of the stored carriers from the drift region as well as the formation of an additional heat-flow channel. The simulation results show that the BV of the proposed LIGBT is increased by 113% compared with the conventional SOI LIGBT of the same length L_D. Contrastingly, the length of the drift region of the proposed device (11.2 μ) is about one third that of a traditional device (33 μ) with the same BV of 141 V. Therefore, the turn-off loss (E_OFF) of the CDBL SOI LIGBT is decreased by 88.7% compared with a conventional SOI LIGBT when the forward voltage drop (V_F) is 1.64 V. Moreover, the short-circuit failure time of the proposed device is 45% longer than that of the conventional SOI LIGBT. Therefor, the proposed CDBL SOI LIGBT exhibits a better V_F-E_OFF tradeoff and an improved short-circuit robustness.