64 PHV5ICS OF THE IMPASSIBLE
transferred the properties of one atom into another. This achievement
was so significant that it made the cover of Nature magazine. Another
group was able to teleport calcium atoms as well.
In 2006 yet another spectacular advance was made, for the first
time involving a macroscopic object. Physicists at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and the Max Planck Institute in Germany were
able to entangle a light beam with a gas of cesium atoms, a feat involving trillions upon trillions of atoms. Then they encoded information
contained inside laser pulses and were able to teleport this information to the cesium atoms over a distance of about half a yard. "For the
first time," said Eugene Polzik, one of the researchers, quantum teleportation "has been achieved between light-the carrier of information-and atoms."
TELEPORTATION WITHOUT
ENTANGLEMENT
Progress in teleportation is rapidly accelerating. In 2007 yet another
breakthrough was made. Physicists proposed a teleportation method
that does not require entanglement. We recall that entanglement is the
single most difficult feature of quantum teleportation. Solving this
problem could open up new vistas in teleportation.
"We're talking about a beam of about 5,000 particles disappearing
from one place and appearing somewhere else," says physicist Aston
Bradley of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for
Quantum Atom Optics in Brisbane, Australia, who helped pioneer a
new method of teleportation.
"We feel that our scheme is closer in spirit to the original fictional
concept," he claims. In their approach, he and his colleagues take a
beam of rubidium atoms, convert all its information into a beam of
light, send this beam of light across a fiber-optic cable, and then reconstruct the original beam of atoms in a distant location. If his claim
holds up, this method would eliminate the number one stumbling
block to teleportation and open up entirely new ways to teleport increasingly large objects.
transferred the properties of one atom into another. This achievement
was so significant that it made the cover of Nature magazine. Another
group was able to teleport calcium atoms as well.
In 2006 yet another spectacular advance was made, for the first
time involving a macroscopic object. Physicists at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and the Max Planck Institute in Germany were
able to entangle a light beam with a gas of cesium atoms, a feat involving trillions upon trillions of atoms. Then they encoded information
contained inside laser pulses and were able to teleport this information to the cesium atoms over a distance of about half a yard. "For the
first time," said Eugene Polzik, one of the researchers, quantum teleportation "has been achieved between light-the carrier of information-and atoms."
TELEPORTATION WITHOUT
ENTANGLEMENT
Progress in teleportation is rapidly accelerating. In 2007 yet another
breakthrough was made. Physicists proposed a teleportation method
that does not require entanglement. We recall that entanglement is the
single most difficult feature of quantum teleportation. Solving this
problem could open up new vistas in teleportation.
"We're talking about a beam of about 5,000 particles disappearing
from one place and appearing somewhere else," says physicist Aston
Bradley of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for
Quantum Atom Optics in Brisbane, Australia, who helped pioneer a
new method of teleportation.
"We feel that our scheme is closer in spirit to the original fictional
concept," he claims. In their approach, he and his colleagues take a
beam of rubidium atoms, convert all its information into a beam of
light, send this beam of light across a fiber-optic cable, and then reconstruct the original beam of atoms in a distant location. If his claim
holds up, this method would eliminate the number one stumbling
block to teleportation and open up entirely new ways to teleport increasingly large objects.