Researchers at Fermilab have demonstrated a sustained, long-distance teleportation of qubits of photons with fidelity greater than 90%, a major breakthrough in the development of a quantum internet.
Quantum teleportation is a ‘disembodied’ transfer of quantum states from one location to another, teleporting a qubit by using quantum entanglement where particles are linked to each other. If an entangled pair of particles is shared between two separate locations, the encoded information can be teleported regardless of distance.
The research team, comprised of Fermilab, AT&T, Caltech, Harvard University, NASA Jet Propulsion Labaoratory and Univeristy of Calgary researchers, were able to demonstrate effective quantum teleportation through 44 kilometres of fibre, with qubits teleported over a fibre-optic network using single photon detectors and off the shelf equipment.
The breakthrough can be used to create a quantum internet, a network in which information is stored in qubits and shared over long distances through entanglement. Such a development would revolutionise data storage, precision sensing and computing by providing access to as of yet impossible capabilities.
Maria Spiropulu, Shang-Yi Ch’en professor of physics at Caltech and director of the IN-Q-NET research program, commented: “We are very proud to have achieved this milestone on sustainable, high-performing and scalable quantum teleportation systems. The results will be further improved with system upgrades we are expecting to complete by Q2 2021.”