Diamonds Bring a Quantum Internet One Step Closer

MIT Technology Review reported that scientists at the Netherlands’ Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft have, for the first time, demonstrated “diamond teleporters that can act as nodes in a quantum network.”

That’s important because being able to use diamond crystals to teleport and store quantum information is an “important step toward a quantum Internet.”

The scientists said:

These results establish diamond spin qubits as a prime candidate for the realization of quantum networks for quantum communication and network-based quantum computing.

So how did they do it?

[The scientists] created two quantum memories out of a pair of diamond crystals with single nitrogen atoms embedded in each. They then stored a qubit in the nuclear spin of the first crystal using microwave pulses. This is later transferred to an electron spin orbiting the nucleus.

In the process of teleportation, they create a pair of entangled photons and send one to each crystal. The interaction between the entangled photon and the stored qubit in the first crystal allows the quantum information it carries to be teleported to the second crystal where it ends up stored in the nuclear spin of the nitrogen atom there. ‘The source state is successfully teleported in each of the experimental runs,’ say Pfaff and co.

The key thing here is that the qubit ends up stored in the second crystal, ready for transmission to yet another crystal. In other words, Pfaff and co have demonstrated the techniques necessary for quantum routing.

Click here to read the full MIT Technology Review report.