Researchers create ‘optically active spin arrays’ within a device that could serve as a node for exchanging photons with distant locations.

The research team has designed a nanoscale node made out of magnetic and semiconducting materials that could interact with other nodes, using laser light to emit and accept photons.

The development of such a quantum network — designed to take advantage of the physical properties of light and matter characterized by quantum mechanics — promises faster, more efficient ways to communicate, compute, and detect objects and materials as compared to networks currently used for computing and communications.

Described in the journal Nature Communications, the node consists of an array of pillars a mere 120 nanometers high. The pillars are part of a platform containing atomically thin layers of semiconductor and magnetic materials.

The array is engineered so that each pillar serves as a location marker for a quantum state that can interact with photons and the associated photons can potentially interact with other locations across the device — and with similar arrays at other locations. This potential to connect quantum nodes across a remote network capitalizes on the concept of entanglement, a phenomenon of quantum mechanics that, at its very basic level, describes how the properties of particles are connected at the subatomic level.

«This is the beginnings of having a kind of register, if you like, where different spatial locations can store information and interact with photons,» says Nick Vamivakas, professor of quantum optics and quantum physics at Rochester.

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Rochester. Original written by Bob Marcotte. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.