ODT: Otago researcher has role in ground-breaking research

An international team of researchers has developed the first solid-state quantum memory device, a development which brings closer highly-secure quantum communication networks and other applications.

The device is also far more efficient than previous attempts at quantum memory: at up to 69% efficiency, it is far ahead of the previous maximumof 17% achieved by other forms of storage.

An excerpt: (read in full here)

“But the researchers have found a way to store the information about the light particle, manipulate it, and recall it, by trapping the light in a crystal and mapping a three-dimensional record of the particle’s quantum state onto special mineral impurities in the crystal.

“Measuring this “mapped” information rather than the light avoids destroying it.

“Dr Longdell said the memory system had promising applications in developing quantum-based technologies for top-secret communications, with encryptions that are difficult to break and impossible to eavesdrop on without alerting the people sending and receiving information.”