Near-perfect copies of single photons have been made in the lab for the first time. Quantum systems cannot be cloned – or duplicated – perfectly, but the development of quantum cryptography and computing relies on a knowledge of exactly how well they can be copied. Antia Lamas-Linares and co-workers at the University of Oxford sent a photon into a crystal where it stimulated the emission of another photon with almost the same properties, confirming theoretical predictions (A Lamas-Linares et al 2002 Science to appear).
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