(July 27, 2015) Quantum
technology based on light (photons) has great potential for radically new
information technology based on photonic circuits. Up to now, the photons in
quantum photonic circuits have behaved in the same way whether they moved forward
or backward in a photonic channel. This has limited the ability to control the
photons and thus build complex circuits for photonic quantum computers. Now
researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have discovered a new type of
photonic channels, where back and forth are not equal distances! Such a system
has been a missing component for building quantum photonic circuits on a large
scale. The results are published in the scientific journal, Nature
Nanotechnology.
“The smallest component of light is a photon and photons are
very well suited for carrying information. A quantum circuit based on photons
could contain far more information than is possible with current computer
technology and the information could not be intercepted en route. So we are
working to shape the future quantum technology based on photonics,” explains
Peter Lodahl, Professor and head of the research group Quantum Photonics at the
Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.