Built using exclusively superconducting electron pairs, Dartmouth’s laser represents a world’s first. While traditional lasers use natural atoms to emit light, their natural state makes them impossible to integrate into an electrical circuit. The same isn’t true for a synthetic atom composed of man-made superconducting components.
So, why would it be important to integrate a superconducting atomic laser into a circuit? The short answer: information transmission.
“With a quantum computer you have to get the information from point A to point B,” says Alex Rimberg, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth. “A computer that does a calculation but has no way of getting the information anywhere else isn’t particularly useful.”
To realize their breakthrough, Dartmouth engineers applied electricity to their artificial atom, producing a beam of laser light. Once energized, electrons from the atom oscillate from one side of the atom to another producing photons that are captured between a pair of superconducting mirrors.
Critical to this process is the dance being performed by the atom’s electrons. Because the laser allows electrical energy to be converted to light it also means it has the ability to transfer information. These findings have lead Rimberg and his team to believe that their laser could produce the types of spooky states required to transport quantum information.
While quantum computers are still in their infancy, Rimberg and his team’s work may represent a landmark achievement in the quest to unlock the massive potential of qubits. In the future complex simulations, prime number sequencing and various other computationally difficult tasks may be illuminated with the help of Rimberg’s artificial atomic laser.
Image Courtesy of Dartmouth University