Like quantum physics? What about quantum computers? Or quantum computers in a diamond? Then you should know that researchers at the Max Planck Institute have appropriately devised a way to create a quantum network in which a photon is exchanged between two atoms. Future!
According to Time, the two atoms transmit the photon over a 60m fibre optic cable and is said to be the first to send, receive and store information without failure.
Professor Ignacio Cirac, a director at MPQ, proposed the framework for the experiment. In his team’s quantum network, individual rubidium atoms were lodged between two highly reflective mirrors placed less than a millimetre apart — a setup referred to as an “optical cavity”. The team then fired a laser at one of the atoms, calibrated so as not to disturb it and instead cause it to emit a photon, which then traversed the 60m fibre-optic cable to be absorbed by the second atom, transferring the first atom’s quantum information.
Because quantum bits can computer zeros and ones at the same time, the bits need only exchange the status of their quantum state, which researchers say is a faster and more elegant way of transferring data. They even suggest a entire quantum internet could be possible. I want the future now. [Time]