New microscope catches individual atoms
WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Using highly reflective mirrors,
scientists said on Thursday they had created a kind of microscope that
can trap and observe a single atom at a time.
The team, at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), said
their "atom cavity microscope" takes them a step closer to quantum
computers and communications.
Such technologies would be infinitely faster and more efficient than
present-day computing and information systems.
Writing in the journal Science (http://www.sciencemag.com), physics
professor Jeff Kimble and colleagues said they created an optical
cavity, which consists of a pair of highly reflective mirrors facing one
another across a space of just 10 microns (0.0004 inches).
They create a weak field of light that traps the atom -- in this case a
cesium atom -- in the cavity. The atom interacts with the photons in the
light field and this interaction can be used to "watch" the atom.
"The cavity is a resonator for light, like a half-filled soda bottle is
for sound," Theresa Lynn, a graduate student at Caltech who helped write
the study, said in a statement.
"What we do is similar to holding a tuning fork up to the bottle and
listening to hear it resonate. You'll only a hear a ring if the right
amount of water is in the bottle."
To create a quantum computer, scientists say they will have to be able
to measure atoms in ways not possible now. But such computers would be
able to run huge numbers of calculations all at the same time, making
them many times faster than present-day computers which use only two
numbers -- 0 or 1 -- to calculate.
A quantum computer could use any amount of numbers.
Kimble said the experiment, described at
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~qoptics/atomorbits/, had two advantages.
"On the one hand, it provides forces sufficient to trap the atom within
the cavity at the level of single photons," he said. "On the other hand
and more importantly, the strong interaction enables us to sense atomic
motion in a fashion that has not been possible before."
But it doesn't detect qualia...what a bummer.
-Evan-
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