New quantum applications in optics
March 11, 2008 – 23:03 by Mikko HämäläinenScientific American has had a couple of articles involving optics and quantum mechanics that seem quite interesting. First, a group of researchers in University of St. Andrews in Scotland, have come up with a way to create tiny artificial black holes using optical fibers and carefully aligned light pulses of different wavelength. It is not a real black hole in the classical sense, but could be used to study Hawking radiation when the method gets polished.
In the second piece, a team of physicists at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have been able to freeze a pair of light (photons) in entangled state utilizing ultracold atomic cloud and then rerouting the pair into two different directions. In effect, they achieved what is known as quantum teleportation - transferring quantum state from one location to another. The work is far from finished, but the work so far looks promising.
These two experiments might seem quite far fetched to have any practical applications. This might be true for now, but as the research progresses, this might be the key to quantum telecommunications. As you should know, all the fast switched networks nowadays are based on optical fibers that carry pulses of light in different wavelengths.
Traditionally, switching, for routing the data to correct place, has required either to return the light pulses (multiple quanta of photons) to electronic pulses and switching with traditional semiconductors (slow) or using nanomirrors to redirect the live beam (not that slow, but slow still). Utilizing quantum methods, it should be possible to actually carry and route paired photons without any classical switching involved, thus exceeding the speed of light in communication networks.
Sounds science fiction? Just wait and see, getting innovations like these out of the lab and into the hands of the consumers usually just takes time.
