Danish Researchers Break the Limits of the Internet

A team of Danish physicists has taken a crucial step towards an Internet that is faster and more secure than what we know today. The researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have created an atomic memory that, in time, will be able to break the limits for Internet communication. The team’s breakthrough was published in the prominent journal, Nature, on 25 November 2004.

From Internet to Quantum Internet

The Internet is getting faster and faster – something which we all take for granted. However, communication on the Internet takes place via tiny pulses of light that are constantly becoming weaker as the network handles the increasing flow of information. Soon, we will reach the limit for how weak the pulses can be and still be able to function as information carriers. When that happens, we will have reached the limit for the Internet as we know it today.

But this is not a limit that can stop these Danish physicists. A new type of Internet, a so-called Quantum Internet, where information is encoded in quantum properties of tiny pulses, opens up completely new possibilities. In order for the new network to function in practice, it is first necessary to create new ways to detect and store light information in atoms, a so-called quantum memory. And that is exactly what the researchers have created.

Groundbreaking quantum mechanics

In addition to opening the door to new types of communication, the researcher’s achievement resonates in basic research circles. For atomic memory is a huge leap forward for that type of researcher, especially in the area that deals with phenomena at the atomic level, so-called quantum information.

Behind this quantum-mechanic breakthrough is Eugene Polzik, professor, Brian Julsgaard, assistant research professor, and Jacob Sherson, PhD student. The three physicists achieved the groundbreaking results at the Danish National Research Foundation Center for Quantum Optics at the Niels Bohr Institute. The work has been carried out in cooperation with researchers from the Czeck Republic and Germany as well.