Teleportation
A group of physicists have successfully demonstrated teleportation of a photon, an elementary particle of light, over a straight-line distance of six kilometres.
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The work, which set a new record for distance of transferring a quantum state by teleportation, has been published in the journal Nature Photonics. “Such a network will enable secure communication without having to worry about eavesdropping, and allow distant quantum computers to connect,” says Wolfgang Tittel, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary.
The experiment is based on the entanglement property of quantum mechanics, also known as “spooky action at a distance” — a property so mysterious that not even Einstein could come to terms with it.
“Being entangled means that the two photons that form an entangled pair have properties that are linked regardless of how far the two are separated,” explains Tittel. “When one of the photons was sent over to City Hall, it remained entangled with the photon that stayed at the University of Calgary.”
Next, the photon whose state was teleported to the university was generated in a third location in Calgary and then also travelled to City Hall where it met the photon that was part of the entangled pair.
“What happened is the disembodied transfer of the photon’s quantum state onto the remaining photon of the entangled pair, which is the one that remained six kilometres away at the university,” says Tittel.
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| Research by University of Calgary postdoctoral fellows and PhD students Erhan Saglamyurek, left, Daniel Oblak, and professor Wolfgang Tittel demonstrates the potential to leverage existing and traditional fibre optic infrastructure to transmit highly secure quantum information. Image Source - Riley Brandt, University of Calgary |
"Such a network will enable secure communication without having to worry about eavesdropping, and allow distant quantum computers to connect."
The research could not be possible without access to the proper technology. One of the critical pieces of infrastructure that support quantum networking is accessible dark fibre. Dark fibre, so named because of its composition — a single optical cable with no electronics or network equipment on the alignment — doesn’t interfere with quantum technology.The City of Calgary is building and provisioning dark fibre to enable next-generation municipal services today and for the future.
This demonstration is arguably one of the most striking manifestations of a puzzling prediction of quantum mechanics, but it also opens the path to building a future quantum internet, the long-term goal of the Tittel group. “The good news is that a future quantum Internet is one step closer to reality,” he says.
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