A Modem With a Tiny Mirror Cabinet Could Help Connect The Quantum Internet

  Quantum physics promises huge advances not just in quantum computing but also during a quantum internet – a next-generation framework for transferring data from one place to a different. Scientists have now invented technology suitable for a quantum modem that might act as a network gateway.

What makes a quantum internet superior to the regular, existing internet that you're reading this through is security: interfering with the info being transmitted with quantum techniques would essentially break the connection. It's as near unhackable as you'll possibly get.

As with trying to provide practical, commercial quantum computers though, turning the quantum internet from potential to reality is taking time – not surprising, considering the incredibly complex physics involved. A quantum modem can be a really important success for the technology.

"In the long run, a quantum internet might be wont to connect quantum computers located in several places, which might considerably increase their computing power!" says physicist Andreas Reiserer, from the Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck Institute in Germany.

Quantum computing is made round the idea of qubits, which unlike classical computer bits can store several states simultaneously. The new research focuses on connecting stationary qubits in a very quantum computer with moving qubits traveling between these machines.

That's a troublesome challenge when you're handling information that's stored as delicately because it is with natural philosophy. during this setup, light photons are wont to store quantum data in transit, photons that are precisely tuned to the infrared wavelength of laser light employed in today's communication systems.

That gives the new system a key advantage therein it'll work with existing fiber-optic networks, which might make a quantum upgrade rather more straightforward when the technology is prepared to roll out.

In working out the way to get stored qubits at rest reacting good with moving infrared photons, the researchers determined that the element erbium and its electrons were best fitted to the duty – but erbium atoms aren't naturally inclined to form the required jump between two states. to form that possible, the static erbium atoms and therefore the moving infrared photons are essentially locked up together until they get along.

Working out the way to try this required a careful calculation of the space and conditions needed. Inside their modem, the researchers installed a miniature mirrored cabinet around a crystal manufactured from a yttrium silicate compound. This founded was then was cooled to minus 271 degrees Celsius (minus 455.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

The modem mirror cabinet. (Max Planck Institute)

The cooled crystal kept the erbium atoms stable enough to force an interaction, while the mirrors bounced the infrared photons around tens of thousands of times – essentially creating tens of thousands of chances for the mandatory jump to happen. The mirrors make the system 60 times faster and far more efficient than it'd be otherwise, the researchers say.

Once that jump between the 2 states has been made, the data are often passed someplace else. That data transfer raises a full new set of problems to be overcome, but scientists are busy acting on solutions.

As with many advances in quantum technology, it's visiting take a long time to induce this from the lab into actual real-world systems, but it's another significant revolution – and also the same study could also help in quantum processors and quantum repeaters that pass data over longer distances.

"Our system thus enables efficient interactions between light and solid-state qubits while preserving the delicate quantum properties of the latter to an unprecedented degree," write the researchers in their published paper.