By coupling quantum light sources with quantum information squeezed through nano-scale triangular holes strategically etched into a thin layer of silver, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have demonstrated a path to sensors and information processing up to 10 times better than what was previously possible with plasmonics. The technology moves the field of plasmonics, dubbed "light on a wire," to a level previously only imagined, said Raphael Pooser, co-author of a Physical Review Letters paper (http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v110/i15/e156802) that details the discovery. "We transferred multiple quantum bits into the plasmons whereas in the past only one at a time had been done, and it was done with only a single photon at a time while we used millions," said Pooser, a member of ORNL's Quantum Information Science Group.
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