Chinese physicists have developed for the first time an approach that allows the creation of dozens of parallel quantum communication channels and their use in teleportation of a large number of quantum resources.
This development has enabled scientists to transmit an image via teleportation in a single session of quantum communication, according to a study published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters.
The physicists said: "To develop a scalable and flexible quantum internet, we need technologies that allow the exchange of quantum resources across parallel and separate communication channels simultaneously. We were able for the first time to achieve the instantaneous transmission of one hundred different quantum states and their reading using a reconfigurable optical system, which allows the formation of dozens of spatially separate quantum communication channels."
Quantum teleportation is a physical phenomenon in which subatomic particles can exchange information instantaneously across any distance, provided they are "entangled" at the quantum level. This phenomenon has been used for many years to transmit data over optical and satellite communication lines, but in all cases, teleportation has involved single light particles or other quantum objects.
To overcome this limitation, a team of Chinese physicists led by Professor Jing Jitai of East China Normal University in Shanghai developed an approach that allows a large number of quantum states to be transmitted in parallel through a single quantum communication channel. This approach relies on techniques previously used to create "networks" of atoms in quantum computers, as well as a spatial light modulator, an optical device used in holography.
Using this device enabled physicists to split the incident light beam used to generate the "entangled" particles into a set of one hundred independent and separate channels, each capable of transmitting quantum information through the same optical fiber. This allowed for the simultaneous instantaneous transmission of hundreds of particles in a single communication session, which physicists exploited to perform the first instantaneous transmission of a 10x10 pixel image in history.
Experiments conducted by scientists confirmed the reality of instantaneous image transmission, indicating the possibility of accelerating information transfer over quantum communication channels by a factor of one hundred using currently available devices. In the future, scientists predict, the number of "pixels" in this device could be significantly increased, which would further enhance the capacity of quantum communication networks and expand the use of instantaneous transmission in their operation.
