By Chad Boutin, National Institute of Standards and Technology
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Surprisingly, transmitting information-rich photons thousands of miles through fiber-optic cable is far easier than reliably sending them just a few nanometers through a computer circuit. However, it may soon be possible to steer these particles of light accurately through microchips because of research* performed at the Joint Quantum Institute, a research partnership of the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and at Harvard University.