Particles of twisted light that have been entangled using quantum mechanics offer a new approach to dense and secure data storage.
Holograms that produce 3-D images and serve as security features on credit cards are usually made with patterns laid down with beams of laser light. In recent years, physicists have found ways to create holograms with entangled photons instead. Now there is, literally, a new twist to the technology.
Entangled photons that travel in corkscrew paths have resulted in holograms that offer the possibility of dense and ultrasecure data encryption, researchers report in a study to appear in Physical Review Letters.
Light can move in a variety of ways, including the up-and-down and side-to-side patterns of polarized light. But when it carries a type of rotation known as orbital angular momentum, it can also propagate in spirals that resemble twisted rotini pasta.
Like any other photons, the twisted versions can be entangled so that they essentially act as one entity. Something that affects one of an entangled photon pair instantly affects the other, even if they are very far apart.
2023-02-07 09:00:00
Original from www.sciencenews.org
In a breakthrough study, physicists at Kyoto University have managed to store three-dimensional information in twisted light particles known as quantum holograms.
This breakthrough presents data storage capabilities with no known technological limitations and could pave the way for more advances in quantum computing.
The quantum holograms are created by sending infrared laser light through a special arrangement of four glass blocks and then a series of lenses. This twisting of the laser beam produces ‘optical vortices’, small particles of light which carry the data. These can then be stored in the form of holograms, allowing much higher capacity and more secure data than traditional storage.
The researchers tested their discovery by encoding three-dimensional shapes into the storage medium and then decoding it, finding that the data was successfully retrieved in an experiment that could not be reproduced in a classical computer.
The implications of this breakthrough are far-reaching. All information being stored and transmitted using the quantum hologram coding can now be kept significantly more secure due to the unique nature of the particles. This could potentially revolutionize current information technology and revolutionize how the world stores data digitally.
The international research team is hoping to make advancements in the field, exploring further applications for the technology and furthering our understanding of quantum computing.
It is clear from this study that our understanding of information storage is rapidly progressing and that scientists are stepping closer and closer to the age-old dream of quantum computing. It is an exciting time, indeed, as physicists continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in information technology.
