New Photon Polarizer Lights Way to Quantum Communications

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a technique that can produce polarized photons more easily and cheaply than existing methods. The technique uses an atomic force microscope to form indentations in a two-layer stack of atomically thin materials. The indentations produce small magnetic fields that polarize photons emitted by the system. If scaled up, the method could accelerate progress in making quantum communication a reality.