Phys.org March 1, 2019
Researchers in Switzerland used double-slit experiment to show that correlations indicate how well one can predict, for instance, the oscillatory phase of one light wave if one knows the phase of the other wave. Even if both phases are noisy they can still do so in a more or less synchronized fashion. They have demonstrated that correlations exist between pairs of light waves, which means that the number of those correlations does not increase linearly with the number of light waves, but roughly quadratically. In principle, therefore, it should be possible to transmit six bits of information using four light waves, 28 bits using eight light waves, and so on. The research may increase the data capacity of fibre optic cables, reduce cost as coherent laser light is not required and contribute to data safety as oscillations of light waves cannot be recorded in real time…read more.
Experimental setup of the random anti-laser. Credit: TU Wien