I’ll be happy when we can [tag]beam[/tag] our [tag]groceries[/tag] down
Scientists [tag]teleport[/tag] two different objects
LONDON, England (Reuters) — Beaming people in [tag]Star Trek[/tag] fashion is
still in the realms of science fiction but physicists in Denmark have
teleported information from light to matter bringing quantum
communication and computing closer to reality.
Until now [tag]scientists[/tag] have teleported similar objects such as light or
single atoms over short distances from one spot to another in a split
second.
But Professor Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at
Copenhagen University in Denmark have made a breakthrough by using both
light and matter.
“It is one step further because for the first time it involves
teleportation between light and matter, two different objects. One is
the carrier of [tag]information[/tag] and the other one is the storage medium,”
Polzik explained in an interview on Wednesday.
The experiment involved for the first time a macroscopic atomic object
containing thousands of billions of atoms. They also teleported the
information a distance of half a meter but believe it can be extended
further.
“Teleportation between two single atoms had been done two years ago by
two teams but this was done at a distance of a fraction of a
millimeter,” Polzik, of the Danish National Research Foundation Center
for Quantum Optics, explained.
“Our method allows [tag]teleportation[/tag] to be taken over longer distances
because it involves light as the carrier of entanglement,” he added.
Quantum entanglement involves entwining two or more particles without
physical contact.
Although teleportation is associated with the [tag]science fiction[/tag] series
Star Trek, no one is likely to be beamed anywhere soon.
But the achievement of Polzik’s team, in collaboration with the theorist
Ignacio Cirac of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in
Garching, Germany, marks an advancement in the field of quantum
information and computers, which could transmit and process information
in a way that was impossible before.
“It is really about teleporting information from one site to another
site. Quantum information is different from classical information in the
sense that it cannot be measured. It has much higher information
capacity and it cannot be eavesdropped on. The transmission of quantum
information can be made unconditionally secure,” said Polzik whose
research is reported in the [tag]journal[/tag] [tag]Nature[/tag].
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/10/04/teleportation.reut/index.html