Chicago physicist’s 20-year-old quantum imaging theory gets experimental proof using superconductors

Representational image of quantum imaging showing electron waves around an atom. (AI photo) Dirk Morr, a physics professor at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), has developed a quantum imaging strategy that uses superconductors as tiny projectors. The research, published in Nature Physics, provides experimental support for an idea Morr first proposed two decades ago.Morr had been waiting for years to see whether his theoretical work could be demonstrated in an experiment. The recent findings showed quantum imaging similar to what his calculations had predicted.“I don’t know if ‘blessed’ is the right word, but it’s a very cool accomplishment,” Morr said. “It feels rewarding to have theorized something two decades ago and finally see it come to fruition. That’s what science is all about,” he said UIC Today reported.Morr joined the UIC faculty in 2001. As a theoretical physicist, he works with mathematical models to explain how nature behaves. He became interested in the possibility of quantum images after following an experiment at IBM that year.The IBM researchers used a scanning tunnelling microscope to arrange cobalt atoms into a small, elliptical structure called a quantum...