Making the jump: A render of the nanomechanical resonator used in the sound quantization experiment. The lighter coloured pads below the resonator are the contacts of the superconducting qubit. The dark field behind is the silicon substrate of the superconducting qubit chip. (Courtesy: Erik Szakiel)

In the 1980s, scientists measured quantized jumps in the energy of ions for the first time. In the 2000s, it was photons’ turn. Now, thanks to a tour de force of device engineering and nanofabrication, researchers at Stanford University in the US are reporting that phonons – mechanical vibrations like those that carry sound – also display this quantum behaviour.

“We could see it by eye [in the data], which was very satisfying,” team leader Amir Safavi-Naeini tells Physics World.…