Juniorprof. Dr Alexander Szameit (r.) and Dr Marco Ornigotti from University of Jena (Germany)with models of the USS Enterprise. The physicists have now for the first demonstrated in an experiment that the concept of teleportation does not only persist in the world of quantum particles, but also in our classical world. Credit: Jan-Peter Kasper/FSU
The team of scientists lead by sci-fi fan Prof. Szameit has now for the first demonstrated in an experiment that the concept of teleportation does not only persist in the world of quantum particles, but also in our classical world. “Elementary particles such as electrons and light particles exist per se in a spatially delocalized state,” says Szameit. For these particles, it is with a certain probability thus possible to be in different places at the same time. “Within such a system spread across multiple locations, it is possible to transmit information from one location to another without any loss of time.” This process is called quantum teleportation and has been known for several years.
But this time they used a special form of laser beams in the experiment. “As can be done with the physical states of elementary particles, the properties of light beams can also be entangled,” explains Dr Marco Ornigotti, from Szameit’s team. For physicists, “entanglement” means a sort of codification. “You link the information you would like to transmit to a particular property of the light,” clarifies Ornigotti who led the experiments for the study that was now presented.
In their particular case, the physicists have encoded some information in a particular polarisation direction of the laser light and have transmitted this information to the shape of the laser beam using teleportation. “With this form of teleportation, we can, however, not bridge any given distance,” admits Szameit. “On the contrary, classic teleportation only works locally.” But just like it did at the starship USS Enterprise or in quantum teleportation, the information is transmitted fully and instantly, without any loss of time. And this makes this kind of information transmission a highly interesting option in telecommunication for instance, underlines Szameit.
http://www.uni-jena.de/en/Research+News/FM160304_Teleportation_en.html
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