Light is an extremely useful tool for quantum communication, but it has one major disadvantage: it usually travels at the speed of light and cannot be kept in place. A team of scientists at the Vienna University of Technology has now demonstrated that this problem can be solved - not only in strange, unusual quantum systems, but in the glass fiber networks we are already using today.
By coupling atoms to glass fibers light was slowed down to a speed of 180 km/h.
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Ref: Storage of fiber-guided light in a nanofiber-trapped ensemble of cold atoms. Optica, 2015; 2 (4): 353 DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.2.000353
Future quantum internet could utilize current fiber networks as scientists bring "light to a standstill"
