secure networks and interconnected quantum computers

Science Researchers develop mini quantum storage for mass production

2024-01-22 Source: University Basel | Translated by AI 1 min Reading Time

Networks such as the internet or mobile networks have become indispensable in our lives. Similar networks could soon emerge for quantum technologies as well. However, this requires suitable storage elements.

In the glass cell, which is only a few millimeters in size and filled with rubidium atoms, light pulses can be stored and read out again.(Image: Universität Basel, Departement für Physik/Scixel) — In the glass cell, which is only a few millimeters in size and filled with rubidium atoms, light pulses can be stored and read out again.
(Image: Universität Basel, Departement für Physik/Scixel)

Researchers at the University of Basel have created a quantum storage element based on atoms in a tiny glass cell. According to an announcement, such quantum storage could potentially be mass-produced on a wafer in the future. For the researchers, it is a first step towards developing a quantum network for secure message transmission or connecting quantum computers. Their results were first published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

To transmit quantum information, light particles are very suitable, according to the researchers. Photons can be used to transmit quantum information via optical fibers and to satellites or direct it into a quantum storage element. There, the quantum mechanical state of the photons must be stored as precisely as possible and then be convertible back into photons after a storage period. The researchers from Basel were already able to use rubidium atoms in a glass cell for this purpose, but two years ago, it was still several centimeters in size.

To use the cell, which is only a few millimeters in size, they had to heat it to 100 degrees Celsius in order to increase the vapor pressure. Moreover, they subjected the atoms to a magnetic field of 1 Tesla, more than ten thousand times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. As a result, the atomic energy states were shifted so that the quantum storage of the photons became easier with the help of an additional laser beam, it is further stated. With this method, photons could be stored for about 100 nanoseconds. According to the researchers, around 1000 units of this miniature quantum storage can be produced in parallel on a wafer. To make it more efficient, the researchers first want to optimize the format of the glass cell in a next project to increase the storage duration of the photons.

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