# Tiny Optical Cavity Could Make Quantum Networks Possible

**Source**: https://aph.caltech.edu/news/tiny-optical-cavity-could-make-quantum-networks-possible-1
**Parent**: https://aph.caltech.edu/people/faraon

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Tiny Optical Cavity Could Make Quantum Networks Possible

# Tiny Optical Cavity Could Make Quantum Networks Possible

March 31, 2020

[Andrei Faraon](http://eas.caltech.edu/people/faraon), Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering, and team have shown that atoms in optical cavities—tiny boxes for light—could be foundational to the creation of a quantum internet. They identified a rare-earth ytterbium ion in the center of a beam. The ytterbium ions are able to store information in their spin for 30 milliseconds. In this time, light could transmit information to travel across the continental United States. "It's a rare-earth ion that absorbs and emits photons in exactly the way we'd need to create a quantum network," says Faraon. "This could form the backbone technology for the quantum internet." [[Caltech story](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/tiny-optical-cavity-could-make-quantum-networks-possible)]

Written by

Briana Ticehurst

Ytterbium ion in a nanophotonic cavity

Professor Andrei Faraon

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