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Storing Photons In a Solid State Device

Posted by timothy on from the next-year-in-vending-machines dept.

bondisthebest writes in with a report from IEEE Spectrum: "Physicists in Switzerland, led by Nicolas Gisin of the University of Geneva, reported last week in Nature that they have made a solid-state device capable of storing photons for as long as 1 microsecond. The invention will aid in the development of light-based quantum-cryptography networks, which are theoretically impervious to hacking but are currently limited in range to a few dozen kilometers, primarily because of a lack of a suitable way to store the quantum state of photons."

4 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Photons, Toddlers, and Tonguetwisters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    1 microsecond of persistence...they'd need to be refreshed at a rate of 1GHz, which seems plausible.

    After reading the article, it seems we're still a long long long way off from any kind of general-purpose photonic processor, but this seems like a very important advance.

  2. Re:I'm Gonna Be Rich! by Kabuthunk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Course, then you're left with the problem of getting the photon to STAY between the mirrors, instead of just go back and forth away from the source until it hits the bottom of the mirror.

    You'd have to find a way to release the photon exactly perpendicular to the mirror, but not have the emitter get in the way when it bounces back.

    --
    Planet Zebeth - Metroid with a twist
  3. Just get a small black hole by Baruch+Atta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Easy. Just get a small black hole. Shoot the photons around the gravity well. They'll last almost forever.

    --
    You can only be young once. But you can always be immature.
  4. Why not use it for by Whiteox · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Fast Ram?
    Sounds ideal.
    In fact I may just go and RTFA.

    --
    Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!