Single-photon Detector
NIST chip containing a single-photon detector made of superconducting nanowires. Four chips like this were used in the experiment that entangled three photons. A nanowire is a nanostructure, with the diameter of the order of a nanometer. It can also be defined as the ratio of the length to width being greater than 1000. Alternatively, nanowires can be defined as structures that have a thickness or diameter constrained to tens of nanometers or less and an unconstrained length. A photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is the force carrier for the electromagnetic force, even when static via virtual photons. The effects of this force are easily observable at the microscopic and at the macroscopic level, because the photon has zero rest mass; this allows long distance interactions. Like all elementary particles, photons are currently best explained by quantum mechanics and exhibit wave-particle duality, exhibiting properties of waves and of particles.
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Keywords: 21st, atomic, century, detector, elementary, engineering, institute, materials, molecular, nanometer, nanostructure, nanotech, nanotechnology, nanowire, national, nist, particle, photon, research, scale, science, single-photon, standards, technological, technology
