clones of quantum information tagged posts

The spin of the blue atoms differs from that of the red atoms. The laser beam shown in red thus only holds the red atoms, while the blue ones can be transported by the differently polarized laser beam to any position. (Image: Carsten Robens/Uni Bonn)

Physicists at the University of Bonn have cleared a further hurdle on the path to creating quantum computers: in a recent study, they present a method with which they can very quickly and precisely sort large numbers of atoms. Imagine you are standing in a grocery store buying apple juice. Unfortunately, all of the crates are half empty because other customers have removed individual bottles at random. So you carefully fill your crate bottle by bottle...

Beam of light passing through splitter. Credit: Lee Henderson/UNSW

Physicists at ANU and UQ have produced near-perfect clones of quantum information using a new method to surpass previous cloning limits. A global race is on to use quantum physics for ultra-secure encryption over long distances according to Prof Ping Koy Lam, node director of ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T) at ANU. The new cloning method uses high performance optical amplifiers to clone light encoded with quantum information – it is possible this technique could allow quantum encryption to be implemented with existing fibre optic infrastructure.

“One obstacle to sending quantum information is that the quantum state degrades before reaching its destination...