Scientists at the Delft University of Technology's Kavli Institute of Nanoscience reported a breakthrough in the quantum teleportation of information.

Prof. Ronald Hanson, head of the research group wrote in a summary that they were able to transfer information from one quantum bit, or qubit, to another "entangled" qubit about 10 feet away. What is so fascinating about this is that the information did not travel through the intervening space.

Potentially a major advance in the pursuit of quantum teleportation, the Dutch researchers reported that there was no degradation in the information transferred between the two quantum bits.


The researchers fashion their qubits using electrons in diamonds, they said. "We use diamonds because 'mini prisons' for electrons are formed in this material whenever a nitrogen atom is located in the position of one of the carbon atoms. The fact that we're able to view these miniature prisons individually makes it possible for us to study and verify an individual electron and even a single atomic nucleus."

"We're able to set the spin (rotational direction) of these particles in a predetermined state, verify this spin and subsequently read out the data. We do all this in a material that can be used to make chips out of. This is important as many believe that only chip-based systems can be scaled up to a practical technology."

"This development is an important step towards a quantum network for communication between future ultra-fast quantum computers—a quantum Internet," he said. "Quantum computers will be able to solve certain important problems that even today's supercomputers are unable to tackle. Furthermore, a quantum Internet will enable completely secure information transfer, as surreptitious eavesdropping will be fundamentally impossible in such a network."

The team published their findings in this issue of Science.