The Triangle

Issue date: 6/25/04 Section: Sci-Tech

Media Credit: BBC

Austrian and American scientists from the University of Innsbruck and the National Institute of Standards and Technology respectively, reported June 14 that they have been able to transfer the quantum state of an atom to another without any physical connection, essentially teleporting the atom from one location to another. Each team reached the same result independently using slightly different methods; Rainer Blatt's Austrian teleported calcium ions, while David Winland's American team teleported beryllium ions. Both teleported atoms with an accuracy of 75 percent. The results were published in the June 17 issue of Nature.

Previously, light beams were transported in a similar way using photons, but this was the first instance of atom transportation. The teleportation was achieved by first "entangling" two atoms, causing them to have the same properties or quantum states. A third outside atom was then entangled with one of these atoms, and the other was "destroyed", causing the third atom to take on its properties with the use of a laser beam. The "destroyed" atom still existed, but no longer had its original quantum state. This process took place over a fraction of a millimeter distance and within a nanosecond of time.

This result holds promise for quantum computing, in which qubits, or bits with the quantum equivalent of 1s and 0s, transmit information. Transferring information without using intermediaries would lead to supercomputers, which could process more quickly if the procedure could be used for heavier atoms as well.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools