Researchers have developed a groundbreaking quantum memory for X-rays, allowing extended memory times and paving the way for advanced quantum optics applications, including photon entanglement at X-ray energies.
Light serves as an exceptional carrier of information, playing a crucial role not only in traditional communication technologies but also in emerging quantum applications like quantum networking and computing. However, processing light signals is significantly more complex than handling standard electronic signals.
An international team of researchers including Dr. Olga Kocharovskaya, a distinguished professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University, has demonstrated a novel way of storing and releasing X-ray pulses at the single photon level — a concept first proposed in earlier theoretical work by Kocharovskaya’s group — that could apply to future X-ray quantum technologies.
The team’s work, led by Helmholtz Institute Jena Professor Dr. Ralf Röhlsberger and performed using the synchrotron sources PETRA III at the German Electron Synchroton (DESY) in Hamburg and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, resulted in the first realization of quantum memory in the hard X-ray range. Their findings are published in the journal Science Advances.
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