Professor Mete Atatüre on how entanglement between photons and electrons opens up a new frontier in quantum communications.
Imagine you’re sitting in your office, wherever you are in the world, and you’re awaiting an important message. Mete Atatüre might have just the thing.
Mete, a physicist and professor at the University of Cambridge, is researching how light and matter interact. The goal, as Mete tells Dr. Pranoti Kshirsagar on this latest episode of Under the Microscope, is to figure out how scientists can leverage those interactions for various technologies, specifically for quantum networks and quantum sensors.
What does that have to do with you, waiting for your message? As Mete explains, quantum dots can generate and emit photons, which are a pretty fast way to communicate – after all, they’re traveling at the speed of light. “If they can read this information from the individual photons, then we establish a communication channel,” Mete says. “What is nice about photons is that if you rely on single photons, then only one measurement can be done before [the] photon disappears. So there is no eavesdropper, in principle, to tap into the line quietly and listen to the conversation.”
As Mete points out, lots of scientists see the potential of quantum dots in secure communications. Other recent Under the Microscope guests, including physicist Armando Rastelli, have talked about similar applications. But what makes Mete’s research a bit different is how he’s studying the interaction between light – those photons – and matter – in this case, electrons.
“Instead of two photons being quantum entangled, I can create quantum entanglement between two distinct objects, an electron and a photon,” Mete says. “And that creates the concept of quantum information being distributed between different nodes of a quantum network, for example, while holding on to the information, almost like a memory.”
On the podcast, Mete talks in much more detail about the technological applications of his research, and how his work with different materials, such as boron nitride, can potentially create quantum devices that could operate in all kinds of environments – including inside the cells of animals, like worms. Those advancements may help us better understand how living cells react when exposed to certain conditions. “All of these research opportunities are now available because we have this capability,” Mete says.
An excerpt of Pranoti and Mete’s conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below. Listen to the full conversation on Spotify or watch on YouTube.
About the Guest: Mete Atatüre is a physicist and professor at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He is on Instagram and Threads at @MeteAtature.
Background Reading and Useful Links
Mete Atatüre’s Google Scholar Page
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