Single-atom Laser Built at Caltech

hweimer writes "A research group at Caltech has successfully constructed a laser consisting of only one caesium atom. The emitted light is very weak but highly ordered, so such a device may be used to control a quantum computer. More on this can be found at PhysicsWeb."

Comments

Begging the question:

[Anonymous Coward]

How big are the sharks?

Wow

[stratjakt]

Hooray

Quantum computers, sure. I bet they'll even run Duke Nuk'Em Forever lan parties over IPv6.

Re:Wow

[EulerX07]

SCIENTIST : With this you could create a Quantum computer.

ENGINEER : Uhhm, it's not that simple...

SLASHDOTTER : Yes it is! Keep up please!

Re:Wow

[__aagmrb7289]

Since I've had two replies that basically say the same thing, I'll reply to myself to answer:

1. Of course it isn't easy; and
2. This is a tool that quantum computer researchers have pretty much been requesting - a laser to more easily manipulate the devices they currently are using.

Point is, this isn't some obscure, not so useful (yet) tool - it has immediate applications, and can be put to immediate use.

Re:Wow

[poot_rootbeer]

Quantum computers, sure. I bet they'll even run Duke Nuk'Em Forever lan parties over IPv6.

They might, they might not...

Re:Wow

[killthiskid]

Or they could both be running and not running the game at the same time!

No one will know until they open up the door to the room where the lan party may or may not be taking place.

But the bigger question is..

[inteller]

Will this incinerate ants better than my trusty magnifying glass?

Wow

[CaptBubba]

This is simply amazing. I'm trying to picture all the machinery and people that went into getting that one atom to light up.

And now the physicists hand the engineers the huge task: "Ok, we got it to work, you get it to do something usefull"

GoogleNews

[Leffe]

Here's a handy link with all the articles on GoogleNews:

http://news.google.com/news?q=single+atom+laser

Re:GoogleNews

[TopShelf]

With any luck, the editors would start putting links like this into the articles themselves.

*SMACK*

That is, when they're not too busy submitting dupes without checking for messy details like facts, grammer, spelling, etc.

Not big enough.

[caluml]

I want a laser that can burn a 200 metre-wide hole through the moon from Earth.
What's that you say? Why? What do you mean, why?

Re:Not big enough.

[sharkey]

I want a laser that can burn a 200 metre-wide hole through the moon from Earth.

Or at least criss-cross campus leading co-eds to the sign it's lighting proclaiming one BITCHIN' pool party.

Nope. Sorry.

[FreeLinux]

But, it may prove useful in surgery on ants and may even be used for tatoo removal on ants. This is especially important for those ants who now regret the indiscretions of their teenage years.

Friggin parameciums

[Unknown Poltroon]

with frigin lazers on their heads.

Re:Rubbish

[canajin56]

why does every science experiment have to throw in buzzwords such as "may be use in quantum computers" or "may help a cure for cancer"

Because "it's nifty" doesn't get you grant money.

So...

[e_lehman]

How do you put an "on" switch on a cesium atom?

Finally, I have the weapon I need ...

[burgburgburg]

to conquer the Nanobot world. I WILL rule in Nanobotia. Benevolently, but firmly.

But should even one of those Nanobots cross me, ZZAPP!

Ah yes..

[adeyadey]

...so such a device may be used to control a quantum computer..

Ah, that would be the quantum computer on board the manned space expedition to Mars, power by a fission-reactor ion-drive. Back home we can watch it via our ubiquetous videophones, or our Linux powered desktops, which can run applications with true Artificial Intelligence. All our homes will be supplied by nuclear electricity that is too cheap to meter. There will be peace in Isreal.. etc..

Re:Ah yes..

[Scarblac]

Ah, that would be the quantum computer on board the manned space expedition to Mars, power by a fission-reactor ion-drive. Back home we can watch it via our ubiquetous videophones, or our Linux powered desktops, which can run applications with true Artificial Intelligence. All our homes will be supplied by nuclear electricity that is too cheap to meter. There will be peace in Isreal.. etc..

We live in such interesting times that everyone is taking everything for granted. The idea of a quantum computer was born in 1982 (history of Quantum computing). Now, just over twenty years later, we already have brought bits of the idea into practice - that is stunningly fast, compared with history. Quantum computers are an extremely advanced idea.

Charles Babbage got the idea of a general computer around 1812 (Babbage), but one wasn't built until World War II.

So after only 20 years we already have done some tiny, extremely simple calculations involving a few qubits. Very far from being useful, and still totally amazing that we've come so far. Most ideas take twenty years to become widely known before they're looked at seriously.

So Slashdot readers compare it to Duke Nukem and flying cars, and laugh. These times are so interesting that everyone is jaded.

Cesium in quantum computers...

[DrEldarion]

Cesium in your computer, huh?

Now there's a good reason not to spill coffee at your desk...

-- Dr. Eldarion --

Re:Cesium in quantum computers...

[DrEldarion]

The elements on the far left side of the periodic table of elements are reactive with water. The farther down you go, the more reactive you get. For example, pure sodium produces a relatively mild reaction. Cesium, on the other hand, creates an absolutely HUGE reaction (BOOM!).

It's a chemistry joke.

-- Dr. Eldarion --

How does this fit with Quantum computing

[fruey]

(Blatantly stolen from link on the right of the article)

A system with one or more individual atoms at rest and strongly coupled to a single mode of the electromagnetic field is ideal for testing fundamental concepts of quantum computing and quantum information processing (see Physics World 1998 March). Indeed, Scott Parkins, now at the University of Auckland, and collaborators at the JILA Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, and Caltech first proposed this system as a highly efficient quantum interface in 1993. Using the strong coupling of an atom to a single photon, it should be possible to map a quantum bit at rest from an atomic medium onto a propagating light field, and vice versa. In other words, this scheme could allow quantum information to be sent from one place to another. The first experimental results in this direction were obtained very recently by Markus Hennrich and co-workers at the MPQ. Moreover, two atoms in the cavity should make it possible to realize a "controlled NOT gate", the elementary building block of a quantum computer.

But it does answer the question I was asking myself...

Re:Rubbish

[grub]

why does every science experiment have to throw in buzzwords such as "may be use in quantum computers" or "may help a cure for cancer"

A 12 gauge shotgun could be used in cancer treatments. Of course making sure you only blast out the cancer cells is the really hard part.

Imagine?

[Slicebo]

Can you imagine what you could make with a Beowulf cluster of these?

A FLASHLIGHT!

I don't know

[panurge]

Some of the ruby rods we were getting in the early 80s were such poor quality, I wouldn't be surprised if they were single atom lasers. Pity we didn't know it would one day be leading edge research.

I know, I know, I actually read the article. I can remember when lasers were interesting, before they were just cheap modern replacements for phonograph needles.

Re:laser

[Ayaress]

Yeah, because we all know how much the army needs to blow up those goddamn hydrogen nucleii.

At home with the amoeba

[Channard]

A 12 gauge shotgun could be used in cancer treatments. Of course making sure you only blast out the cancer cells is the really hard part.

Well, that's where the nano-rednecks come in.

construction

[colinleroy]

I wonder if the term "constructed" is really relevant, considering they used a single atom ;-)

Re:construction

[mpe]

The cesium atom is just like the ruby from a ruby laser.

Except that active part of a ruby laser are chromium ions.

There are other components, including, according to the article, at least two OTHER laseres, presumably of the multi-atom variety. So that begs the question: Is it really an accomplishment when you use two lasers to make a WEAKER laser?

The monochromatic light from a laser is the result of an electron moving to a lower energy state. In order for this to happen it first needs to have been moved to a higher energy state. This is presumably what the other 2 lasers are doing.

Like this

[Anonymous Coward]

/--------\
Cesium atom ---- Internet ---> quantum computing
\--------/

Obviously you've never written a business proposal before.

Re:Like this

[orthogonal]

> /--------\
> Cesium atom ---- Internet ---> quantum computing
> \--------/

> Obviously you've never written a business proposal
> before.

No, obviously YOU have not. The proper proposal looks like this:

/--------\
Collect underpants ---> Cesium atom ---- Internet ---> ??? ---> quantum computing
\--------/

Quantum computers exist already

[Hittite Creosote]

We already have quantum computers. They've been used to factor the number 15! Woo!

Well, you've got to start from somewhere...

Thanks a lot

[arnie_apesacrappin]

QM just took an interesting step forward.

Now that you've told us where QM is, we'll never know how fast it's progressing.

Re:"Caesium"?

[Hittite Creosote]

Caesium in the UK, Cesium in the US. Casium in German. Cesium in French. Cesio in Italian and Spanish. Cesio in Portugese.

Originally, the ae was that single symbol which is now so rarely used that Slashdot won't let me use it. But it was named after the latin word 'caesius', which meant bluish-grey.

Nightmare finding the replacement parts ...

[Spectre]

Given the state of my desk, I'll never be able to find the hot-swap spare atom ...

usefulness in quantum computing?

[sluke]

Off the top of my head I can think of two areas where this could be useful for quantum computing. The first would be as a way to comvert flying qubits (photons) in to stationary qubits. If this could be done, than technology such as quantum repeaters would be possible, therefore allowing for long distance quantum cryptography. The second would be as a single photon source, which would have big applications in optical quantum computing.

The article, however, was very light on specifics. It says that the light exhibits antibunching, yet calls it a laser. My understanding of coherent states was that the probability of sending out two photons was high enough that it causes problems with quantum cryptography (Eve can simply observe one of the flying qubits and let the other one go). So do they envision using this as a single photon source? I haven't had a chance to read the journal article yet, so if someone who has a little more info could clarify I would be quite appreciative.

Thinkgeek.com

[Fubar411]

How long until ThinkGeek puts up a banner ad for single atom green lasers?

Re:Thinkgeek.com

[Walt Dismal]

You think that's bad, this morning already I've had 4 popup ads for the X10 Single-Atom Laser.

Sandpaper

[Julian Morrison]

Having an exoskeleton simplifies tattoo removal. You just need an extremely small piece of fine-grained sandpaper...