At a Glance
- Researchers successfully teleported a quantum bit of light at telecom wavelengths to a solid-state quantum memory made from erbium ions for the first time.
- This breakthrough uses components that are fully compatible with existing fiber-optic networks, a significant step toward creating practical quantum communication systems and a quantum internet.
- The experiment confirmed high-quality teleportation, with both state and process fidelities surpassing the classical limit, proving its genuine quantum nature and high effectiveness.
- Integrating a quantum memory is a crucial step in developing quantum repeaters, which are devices necessary to extend quantum entanglement and information over extremely long distances.
- Future research will focus on enhancing the performance of erbium-based memory by increasing its storage time and improving its overall information-storing efficiency for practical applications.
In a breakthrough for next-generation communication, researchers have successfully teleported a quantum bit of light to a solid-state storage device using the same wavelengths that power today’s internet. This achievement, published in Physical Review Letters, marks a critical step toward building a “quantum internet” by demonstrating that futuristic quantum technology can work in harmony with existing fiber-optic infrastructure. The experiment brings together quantum teleportation, a process that transfers quantum information without physically moving the particle carrying it, with a compatible quantum memory capable of storing that information.
Led by a team at Nanjing University, the experiment addresses a significant challenge in creating large-scale quantum networks: transmitting and storing fragile quantum information over long distances. To do this, they used specially designed silicon chips to create pairs of entangled photons—light particles whose fates are intrinsically linked, no matter how far apart they are. One of these photons, carrying a quantum bit or “qubit,” was teleported. Its state was transferred to a quantum memory made of erbium ions, a material that naturally operates in the telecom C band, the main wavelength for global fiber communications. This avoids the complex frequency-conversion steps required in many previous experiments.
The success of the teleportation was confirmed using advanced measurement techniques that verified the quality of the transferred quantum state. The results showed that the fidelity, or accuracy, of the teleported information was significantly higher than that achievable with any non-quantum, classical method. This proves that a genuine quantum connection was established between the light particle and the memory. Such a system is essential for building quantum repeaters, which act like signal boosters for a quantum internet by storing and retransmitting information, allowing it to travel across continents.
“Our entire system uses components compatible with existing fiber networks perfectly,” said Xiao-Song Ma, a senior author of the paper, to Phys.org. “This telecom-compatible platform for generating, storing, and processing quantum states of light establishes a highly promising approach to large-scale quantum networks.” The team’s work paves the way for scalable, solid-state devices that can form the backbone of a future quantum internet, enabling new frontiers in secure communication and distributed quantum computing. The researchers now plan to improve the memory’s storage time and efficiency to bring this technology even closer to practical application.
References
- An, Y.-Y., He, Q., Xue, W., Jiang, M.-H., Yang, C., Lu, Y.-Q., Zhu, S., & Ma, X.-S. (2025). Quantum teleportation from telecom photons to erbium-ion ensembles. Physical Review Letters, 135(1), 010804. https://doi.org/10.1103/3wh8-2gh1
- Fadelli, I. & Phys.org. (2025, July 21). Quantum internet moves closer as researchers teleport light-based information. Phys.Org; Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-quantum-internet-closer-teleport-based.html
