The sapphire crystal resonator used to probe the limits of quantum mechanics
ETH Zurich
Quantum effects have been demonstrated on one of the largest scales ever, pushing the boundaries of the quantum world. A crystal of 10^16 atoms has been placed in a superposition of two quantum states, breaking the previous record of only 2000 atoms.
When a particle is in a quantum superposition of two states, it occupies both distinct states at the same time – the most famous example is Schrödinger’s cat, in which a theoretical cat in …
Article amended on 12 April 2023
We corrected a typo in the number of atoms placed in a superposition
