University of Florence researchers observe quantum entanglement in glass nanosphere

Researchers from the University of Florence, the National Institute of Optics (CNR-INO), the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), and the European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy (LENS) have observed stationary entanglement between the motion of a levitating nanoparticle and light at room temperature.

In the experiment, a glass nanosphere approximately 100 nanometers in diameter was suspended in a vacuum using an optical tweezer. The particle was placed within an optical cavity formed by a pair of mirrors. The team utilized two complementary lasers: one to cool and stabilize the particle's motion, and another to generate the quantum correlations responsible for the entanglement.

This achievement in quantum optomechanics, published in the journal Science, demonstrates a link between the movement of a material object and light, a long-standing goal in physics research.