[Lf] Quantum Device Unveiled

[Andre' Kesteloot]

ITrain Information Services wrote:

> QUANTUM DEVICE UNVEILED
> by Dave Murphy, member at itrain.org
>
> Scientists have unveiled a miniature device that emits
> light particles, or photons, one at a time, an
> accomplishment which could pave the way for
> impregnable coded messages and electronic commerce in
> coming decades.
>
> Reporting in today's issued of Science magazine, scientists
> at the University of California-Santa Barbara have been
> able to create a photon "turnstile," by placing
> "quantum dots"-- crystals containing confined groups of
> negative- and positive-charged atoms -- onto a
> mushroom-shaped semiconductor. When pulsed with a
> laser, the structure releases a single photon.
>
> Rather than accepting the current standard of 84 percent
> efficiency, which was recently attained by a Stanford
> University team, the UC Santa Barbara team's photon
> turnstile works at 100 percent efficiency. A single photon,
> every time.
>
> But there's a cool side to this story. Currently the turnstile
> works at a maximum temperature of minus-321 degrees
> Fahrenheit. The team hopes to be able to modify the
> process to work at room temperature by next year.
>
> Support for development of the photon turnstile came
> from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a
> Defense Department agency charged with advancing
> information technology.
>
> What's exciting about this process to IT folks is that
> single-photon emitters are required to build of quantum
> computers. Acting much like the CPU of the computer, the
> photons enable literally a quantum leap in the technology
> of computer capability.
>
> In theory, such a single light particle offers benefits to
> people hoping to create secure communications, including
> bankers in need of secure pathways for transactions or
> governments relaying secret diplomatic documents.
>
> Writing in Friday's Science, researchers note that such
> fundamental particles cannot be examined without
> altering their physical characteristics, part of the physics
> theory known as quantum mechanics. To create an
> unbreakable code, physicists plan to send a stream of
> single photons imprinted with the key to a later coded
> message.
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