How The Physics Nobel Winners Imprison Subatomic Particles
Dave Wineland and a Laser Trap NIST physicist David Wineland adjusts an ultraviolet laser beam used to manipulate ions in a high-vacuum apparatus containing an "ion trap." These devices have been used to demonstrate the basic operations required for a quantum computer--and today won Wineland and fellow quantum physicist Serge Haroche a Nobel Prize. Copyright Geoffrey Wheeler/NISTSerge Haroche and David Wineland have figured out how to measure quantum systems without disturbing them, enabling the first steps toward quantum computers. Whether it's secure communications through particle teleportation or superfast computational capability, quantum mechanics, that mind-boggling world of the tiniest of the tiny, is at the forefront of modern physics. But this future technology would not be achievable--none of it would even be testable--without the breakthroughs achieved by this year's physics Nobel Prize winners. Serge Haroche and David Wineland both developed ways to control and measure fragile, fleeting quantum states, which was...