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William Atkins
Wednesday, 20 June 2007 22:00
Australian physicist Ashton Bradley and his team of researchers (at the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Quantum Atom Optics—Brisbane) state in their abstract: “We propose a method for quantum state transfer from one atom laser beam to another via an intermediate optical field, using Raman incoupling and outcoupling techniques. Our proposal utilises existing experimental technologies to teleport macroscopic matter waves over potentially large distances without shared entanglement.”
The paper, entitled “Teleportation of massive particles without shared entanglement”, is authored by Bradley, along with M.K. Olsen, Simon A. Haine, and J.J. Hope.
The team theorizes their procedure by firing a matter beam of rubidium atoms into a “sender” device, which also consists of rubidium atoms in a special ultra-cold temperature state called a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The BEC state is a state of matter formed by bosons super-cooled to close to absolute zero (0 Kelvin, or -273.15 degrees Celsius)—it is the lowest possible quantum energy state.
Concurrently, the Australian researchers also use a laser to fire a “control” laser pulse at the sender device.
The incoming beam of fired atoms wants to interact with the ones in the BEC state. To do so, however, they must eliminate all of their excess energy. This energy is removed in the form of photons. Because of the laser, which controls the matter beam of rubidium atoms, the photons are forced to move in a narrow, directed beam.
This directed beam, called the “messenger” pulse of light, is then transmitted down an optical fiber at the speed of light (about 186,000 miles per second). The outgoing photon beam carries all of the information from the original matter beam such as momentum, energy, and number of atoms.
In theory, according to the Australian researchers, the original matter beam can be reconstructed at the end of the optical fiber. The photon beam hits a BEC “receiver” device that contains another Bose-Einstein condensate. A second laser, like the first one, uses a laser pulse to control it. The atoms within the photon beam are then excited—causing them to be absorbed. The receiver device ejects a matter wave, which is identical to the one that entered the sender device.
Theoretically, the matter has been teleported from one location to another location. Bradley comments on their procedure: “We feel that our scheme is closer in spirit to the original fictional concept [the Star Trek® transporter]”. [New Scientist, subscription required] Bradley is comparing the other method currently theorized for teleportation--what is called quantum entanglement teleportation.
Atomic laser and quantum optics physicists would like to develop an experiment to test this theory on teleportation, however, they estimate that it will take at least four years to research and develop the initial experiment.
The teleportation of humans will not happen anywhere in the near future. However, physicists speculate that such a system might one day help set up quantum networks in computers.
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