{"id":139920,"date":"2025-05-28T23:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T23:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139920\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T23:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T23:16:09","slug":"it-sounds-impossible-but-they-did-it-students-develop-new-tech-to-power-3d-holograms-using-quantum-entanglement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139920\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt Sounds Impossible, but They Did It\u201d: Students Develop New Tech to Power 3D Holograms Using Quantum Entanglement"},"content":{"rendered":"

A novel microscopic<\/a> imaging technique, developed by Brown University<\/a> engineers to capture 3D images using quantum<\/a> entanglement<\/a>, may finally solve the problem of phase wrapping.<\/p>\n

Undergraduate students Moe (Yameng) Zhang and Wenyu Liu presented their work at the recent Conference on Lasers<\/a> and Electro-Optics<\/a>. They worked on an independent project under the supervision of senior research associate Petr Moroshkin and Professor Jimmy Xu.<\/p>\n

Illuminating the Target<\/p>\n

The new concept utilizes two light spectra: infrared light to illuminate the target, which is then imaged using visible light entangled with the infrared. This process advances microscopic imaging by capturing the intensity and phase of light, producing true holographic images.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe introduce Quantum Multi-Wavelength Holography,\u201d said Zhang<\/a>, a junior concentrating in engineering physics at Brown. \u201cThe technique allows us to gather\u00a0better and more accurate information on the thickness of the object, which enables us to create accurate 3D images using indirect photons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could call this infrared imaging without an infrared camera,\u201d Xu said. \u201cIt sounds impossible, but they did it. And they did it in a way that enables great depth resolution in the images it produces.\u201d<\/p>\n

How the Microscopic Imaging Works\u00a0<\/p>\n

X-rays and photographs, two standard imaging techniques, capture light reflected off an object, yet quantum imaging relies on the \u201cspooky action at a distance\u201d of quantum entanglement. The \u201cat a distance\u201d portion refers to how, once two photons become entangled, anything that happens to one affects the other, even when separated. Quantum imaging relies on this, referring to one photon as the \u201cidler\u201d and the other as the \u201csignal.\u201d Essentially, the idler\u2019s job is to scan the target, and detecting the entangled idler allows researchers to produce an image of the target.<\/p>\n

The Brown engineers used a nonlinear crystal to generate idlers from photons with infrared wavelengths entangled with visible wavelength signal photons. The team said the best combination was infrared illumination and visible light rendering. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInfrared wavelengths are preferred for biological imaging because they can penetrate skin and are safe for delicate structures, but they require expensive infrared detectors for imaging,\u201d said Liu, a Brown senior concentrating in engineering physics and applied math. \u201cThe advantage of our approach is that we can use infrared for probing an object, but the light we use for detection is in the visible range. So we can use standard, inexpensive silicon detectors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overcoming Phase Wrapping<\/p>\n

To make 3D quantum images, the researchers had to solve for the long-standing problem of \u201cphase wrapping.\u201d This issue arises when imaging techniques utilize the phase of light waves to determine the depth of a target\u2019s contours. The peaks and valleys of the phase sometimes are not as deep as the contours they are imaging, creating a wrap-around effect where deeper features appear at the same depth as shallower features if they are in the same part of the wave cycle.<\/p>\n

The Brown team\u2019s answer involved using two sets of entangled photons instead of one at different wavelengths of light. This allowed for a much greater depth measurement, leading to a more accurate image.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\"Thylacine\"\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\u201cBy using two slightly different wavelengths, we effectively create a much longer synthetic wavelength \u2014 about 25 times longer than the originals,\u201d Liu said.\u00a0\u201cThat gives us a much larger measurable range that\u2019s more applicable to cells and other biological materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an homage to their school, the pair imaged a 1.5 millimeter letter \u201cB,\u201d crafted from metal. Their successful test proved that quantum entanglement can generate high-fidelity 3D images. Liu received the School of Engineering\u2019s Ionata award for this project and his senior thesis, which is presented for unusual creativity and imagination in an independent study project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been reading papers by pioneers in this field, so it was great to be able to attend the conference and meet some of them in person,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really an amazing opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at\u00a0<\/b>ryan@thedebrief.org<\/b><\/a>, and follow him on Twitter <\/b>@mdntwvlf<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A novel microscopic imaging technique, developed by Brown University engineers to capture 3D images using quantum entanglement, may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3845],"tags":[60711,60712,60713,60714,74,11111,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-139920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-brown-university","9":"tag-infrared","10":"tag-microscopic-imaging","11":"tag-phase-wrapping","12":"tag-physics","13":"tag-quantum-entanglement","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114588010650068348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}