The first controllable atom SQUID

The first controllable atom SQUID: Campbell and colleagues in the Laser Cooling and Trapping Group have long been investigating analogous behavior in toroidal Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) – ultracold, donut-shaped ensembles of atoms that are all in the same quantum state and form a superfluid.

To create rotation, which is the superfluid counterpart to external magnetic fields in a SQUID, the team introduces a green laser beam perpendicular to and penetrating the plane of the superfluid ring, and slowly rotates the beam around the ring. (See animation.) The beam acts as a sort of optical paddle, causing the superfluid BEC atoms to rotate.

Just as a superconducting ring admits flux when the current exceeds a critical value, the ring of superfluid admits a vortex, resulting in a change in the circulation of atoms around the ring. Like everything else in the quantum world, the properties of those vortices are quantized – that is, they occur only at discrete values, and lead to quantized circulation states in the BEC. Campbell's team was able to observe and measure those quantum increments and for the first time was able to control the onset of discrete circulation states by tuning the power and rotational speed of the green laser.

Scientists create light from vacuum

Scientists create light from vacuum: The “mirror” consists of a quantum electronic component referred to as a SQUID (Superconducting quantum interference device), which is extremely sensitive to magnetic fields. By changing the direction of the magnetic field several billions of times a second the scientists were able to make the “mirror” vibrate at a speed of up to 25 percent of the speed of light.
“The result was that photons appeared in pairs from the vacuum, which we were able to measure in the form of microwave radiation,” says Per Delsing. “We were also able to establish that the radiation had precisely the same properties that quantum theory says it should have when photons appear in pairs in this way.”
What happens during the experiment is that the “mirror” transfers some of its kinetic energy to virtual photons, which helps them to materialise.