December 1, 2006
1 min read
Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmLight-Matter Teleportation
By JR Minkel
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Physicists recently teleported information stored in a beam of light into a cloud of atoms, without destroying the sensitive quantum state, a feat essential for future quantum computers and cryptography systems. Eugene Polzik and his colleagues at the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark first entangled the laser and atoms into sharing a complementary quantum state by shining a strong laser beam onto a cloud of cesium atoms.
A second weak laser pulse, which stored the information to be teleported, was then mixed with the strong light beam, and their combined amplitudes and phases were measured. The researchers used the results to alter the quantum state of the cesium cloud to match that of the weak pulse. Effectively, the quantum state was transferred, or teleported, between the two, the scientists report in the October 5 Nature.
It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
