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Playing Lego with Photons to Create Powerful Computers

Breakthrough:
A seismic shift in the control of the quantum world as University of Calgary researchers manage to stack photons of light on top of each other like Lego bricks, and help to pave the way for powerful quantum computers.

Business:
Department of Physics, University of Calgary, Canada

The Story:
Radically faster computers, measuring equipment with superior sensitivity, more secure communication systems and improved control over chemical reactions are some of the dramatic features expected of quantum information technology.

Unraveling Quantum Mysteries

We are now closer to this era thanks to the work of scientists at the University of Calgary who have manipulated a quantum property of light known as entanglement. Although unfathomable to most people control of the quantum world is expected to revolutionize information technologies.

The Calgary team was able to stack up two photons (particles) of light on top of one another to construct a variety of quantum states. It is an incredible achievement, one many scientists had only ever dreamed of, especially when you consider that the particles whizz through the air at astonishing speeds and vanish as soon as they come into contact with other particles or objects.

"This ability to prepare or control complex quantum objects is considered the holy grail of quantum science" said Andrew MacRae, a co-author of the paper and PhD physics student at the U of C. "It brings us closer to the onset of the new era of quantum information technology.”

No matter what form quantum computing takes, light, which is of course an outstanding communication tool is expected to be at the heart of it. As the researchers point out in their paper in Nature Photonics “... this {light} is the only physical system that can communicate quantum information over long distance”.

Quantum Entanglement

Entanglement is a quantum property where the behavior of two channels of light are linked no matter how far apart they are. The fate of one depends on the other; a change in one entangled particle results in an instant change in its partner. It is a baffling concept that even Einstein couldn’t get to grips with, “spooky action at a distance,” is how he described it.

Controlling Light

The Calgary researchers were able to take control of light particles by using mirrors and lenses to focusing a blue laser beam into a special crystal. The crystal converted high energy blue photons into low energy red ones which split off into two directions or channels. The scientists were then able to manipulate the channels into two storey quantum structures.

Applications One Day

The fruits of this research will not be in our offices, homes or daily lives for some time, but it has perhaps speeded up the time frame.

“Quantum light is like an ocean and it’s full of mysteries and treasures,” said Alexander Lvovsky, the main author of the study. “Our task is to conquer it. But so far, physicists were able to control only a tiny island in this ocean. What we have done is to make this island bigger.”

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