AsianScientist (May 17, 2017) – For the first time, researchers generated single photons in random polarization states, an important step in true random number generation. Their findings have been published in Scientific Reports.
Quantum information technology, such as quantum computing and quantum cryptography, has the potential to exceed classical information technology in security and capability. In quantum information technology, single photons play an especially important role.
A unit of quantum information is a quantum bit or qubit. It is a two-state quantum-mechanical system, such as the polarization of a single photon. Conventional research had been focused on the generation of single photons in pure polarization states. But now, the team from Tohoku University has, for the first time, generated single photons in random polarization states.
The team led by Professor Keiichi Edamatsu and Postdoctoral fellow Naofumi Abe showed that single-photon emission from a specially oriented compound defect (a nitrogen vacancy center) in diamond is dynamically and statically unpolarized with intrinsic randomness.
These findings could be used in quantum cryptography and the testing of fundamental problems in quantum mechanics,
among other applications.
The article can be found at: Abe et al. (2017) Dynamically Unpolarized Single-photon Source in Diamond with Intrinsic Randomness.
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Source: Tohoku University.
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