Snap shots of the rotation of a tennis racket in flight. While the racket rotates 360 degrees about its lateral axis, the tennis racket effect leads to an unintentional 180-degree flip about its longitudinal axis. The overall rotation leaves the red, bottom side facing upward. (Credit: Steffen Glaser / TUM)
Research news - Quantum technology is seen as an important future-oriented technology: smaller, faster and with higher performance than conventional electronics. However, exploiting quantum effects is difficult because nature's smallest building blocks have properties quite distinct from those we know from our everyday world. An international team of researchers has now succeeded in extracting a fault tolerant manipulation of quanta from an effect of classical mechanics. The motion of a tennis racket in the air can help predict the behavior of quanta. 'Using an analogy from classical physics aids us in more efficiently designing and illustrating control elements for phenomena in the quantum world,' reports Stefan Glaser, professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). 'Controlling the properties of quanta and using them in technical processes has proven difficult thus far because the quanta adhere to their own laws, which often exceed our imagination,' explains the scientist. 'Possible applications such as secure networks, highly sensitive measuring equipment and ultrafast quantum computers are thus still in their infancy.' - Quanta under control.
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