Aug 3 2010
Researchers from Austria, Australia and Canada have made a significant breakthrough in the quantum optics research by creating photon triplets directly. The international team comprises Sven Ramelow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Alessandro Fedrizzi from the University of Queensland, and Kevin Resch, Deny Hamel, Hannes Hübel and Thomas Jennewein from the University of Waterloo.
An intense laser light is used to split a photon.
The photon pairs, produced in the past, transformed quantum optics and aided in developing advanced technologies namely quantum computing and quantum cryptography. Normally, the photon pairs are generated from lasers passing via a crystal. This process is called parametric down-conversion.
In the new experiment, scientists used an optical crystal to create the photon pairs. One of the pairs was split into two additional photons within the second crystal. Since individual triplet was created from one photon pump, the quantum associations will spread over to all the three photons. Using photon pairs that are generated independently will not produce the desired results.
The photon-triplet source will enable researchers to test new quantum correlations and will significantly helps in advancing photonic quantum computing.
The findings have been published in the latest issue of scientific journal, Nature.