Scientists Demonstrate Quantum Internet Over Optical Fiber

Harvard researchers have demonstrated simple quantum internet using optical fiber and photon-mediated entanglement, with the findings published in Nature. Similar results were also demonstrated independently by Dutch and Chinese researchers.

At Harvard, the devices used in the nodes were diamond-based “quantum computers,” utilizing silicon vacancies and electron and nucleus quantum states to store qubits.

Using a process called photon-mediated entanglement, information was sent over a 22-mile long optical fiber loop through Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown, and Boston.

While traditional computers use binary ones and zeroes to store information, “quantum computing is more fluid, as information can exist in stages between on and off, and is stored and transferred as shifting patterns of particle movement across two entangled points,” said Anne J. Manning in the Harvard Gazette.

The past decade has brought a number of quantum breakthroughs, including with the technology for quantum networks, however this is the first time that this quantum internet technology has been successfully demonstrated in a real-world, urban setting.

The technology is not yet a commercially viable product but the researchers say this is the beginning and will soon be attempting to add nodes and try new network protocols.

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