Experts from Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) recently connected two materials through quantum entanglement successfully. The items selected for the study are rubidium atoms that were located 33 kilometers or about 20 miles apart from each other. The scientists used a fiber optic cable to communicate between the two and experimented.
Quantum Entanglement Model
According to the experts, the work is a breakthrough in the innovations leading to the quantum internet, a concept that involves data transmission across a network that is better than the communication methods we have today.
In a new study, the authors demonstrated how information was relayed and connected between distant atoms. Each of the items was kept in different buildings at the LMU. The distance between the locations is approximately 700 meters or about 2,300 feet apart. To perform the feature, a fiber optic cable laid out through numerous coils was used to connect the atoms directly to each other. This wire measured 30 kilometers or 20 miles in length.
The authors used a laser pulse to excite two atoms and allow photons to be added to the equation. The process also caused the atoms to spin and become quantum entangled due to the particle's polarization, IFL Science reported.
In this approach, the team successfully performed what they called a "polarization-preserving quantum frequency conversion." The experiment included the increase of the photon's wavelength from its normal rate of 780 nanometers to more than double, right at about 1,517 nanometers. This digit mirrors the usual rate of modern-day telecommunication wavelengths that uses fiber optics, estimated at 1,550 nanometers.
Quantum Internet Network Using Conventional Fiber Optic-Based Structure
By notching up the transmission through a higher scale of photon wavelength, the communication through the cable could travel from end to end successfully. The atoms were also measured with a balance between the photons that connected them, laying out a model of quantum entanglement.
Because the photon's reach across the cable achieved entanglement, it also caused the pair of rubidium atoms to experience entanglement.
The process performed using the two materials act as "quantum memory" nodes that are interconnected even if located across a wide communication network. The experts highlighted the model's potential by using conventional fiber optic cables in existing telecom structures to build this futuristic model.
What is Quantum Entanglement?
Quantum entanglement is one of physical science's most beautiful but confusing aspects. In this field, materials and particles could be linked in a certain way, regardless of their locations and distance to each other across space.
This connection unifies the physical states of the materials, in which their shared properties are present in each other even if they are located far apart. Moreover, the modifications of one of the objects or atoms instantly mirror the others. Previous studies have demonstrated how objects could enter quantum entanglement, but this new research was the first to apply the concept using atomic particles successfully.
LMU scientist and lead author of the study Tim van Leent explained in a press release that the importance of their team's work is achieving the entanglement between two stationary particles, in this case, atoms that served as quantum memories.
The process was quite difficult compared to entangling photons, but the model opens new possibilities for other scientific applications such as the quantum internet based on the traditional structures relying on fiber optics.
The results were published in Nature, titled "Entangling single atoms over 33 km telecom fibre."
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