Major Accomplishment in Quantum Communication; Chinese Prove Einstein's "Spooky" Exists at Large Distance

Credit: Xinhua/Jin Liwang

A team of Chinese scientists have realized the satellite-based distribution of entangled photon pairs over 1,200 kilometers. The photon pairs were demonstrated to be still entangled after travelling long distances. This satellite-based technology opens up bright prospects for both practical quantum communications and fundamental quantum optics experiments at distances previously inaccessible on the ground, said Pan Jianwei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

This satellite-based technology opens up bright prospects for both practical quantum communications and fundamental quantum optics experiments at distances previously inaccessible on the ground, said Pan Jianwei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The achievement was made based on the world’ s first quantum satellite, Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS), also dubbed Micius, launched by China on August 16, 2016, and was published as a cover article in the latest issue of academic journal Science.

This experiment was made through two satellite-to-ground downlinks with a total length varying from 1,600 to 2,400 kilometers. The obtained link efficiency is many times higher than that of the direct bidirectional transmission of the two photons through telecommunication fibers, said Pan, who is also the lead scientist of QUESS.

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in quantum physics, which is so confounding that Albert Einstein described it as “spooky action at a distance” in 1948.

Composite photo taken on June 15, 2017 shows a quantum communication ground station in Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Chinese scientists on Thursday reported a major breakthrough in quantum communication: A pair of entangled photons over a distance of 1,200 km have been successfully transmitted from space to Earth. The previous record was about 100 km. 

Credit: Xinhua/Jin Liwang
Scientists found that when two entangled particles are separated, one particle can somehow affect the action of the far-off twin instantly.

Scientists liken it to two pieces of paper that are distant from each other: if you write on one, the other immediately shows your writing.

The mystery of quantum entanglement has been puzzling scientists since it was detected.

Quantum physicists have a fundamental interest in distributing entangled particles over increasingly long distances and studying the behavior of entanglement under extreme conditions.

In theory, this bizarre connection can exist over any distance, but scientists want to see if there’ s some physical limit. “If you want to explore new physics, you must push the limits,” Pan said.

Previously, entanglement distribution had only been achieved at a distance up to 100 kilometers due to photon loss in optical fibers or terrestrial free space.

One way to improve the distribution lies in the protocol of quantum repeaters, whose practical usefulness, however, is hindered by the challenges of quantum storage and readout efficiency, Pan said.

Another approach is making use of satellite-based and space-based technologies, as a satellite can conveniently cover two distant locations on Earth. The main advantage of this approach is that most of the photons’ transmission path is almost in a vacuum, with almost zero absorption and de-coherence, Pan said.

Credit: Xinhua/Jin Liwang

GIANT STEP

An immediate application of distributed entangled photons, said Pan, is for entanglement-based quantum key distribution to establish secure keys for quantum communication. Another is to exploit distributed entanglement to perform a variant of quantum teleportation protocol for remote preparation and control of quantum states.

According to Pan, peer reviewers of the paper praised his work as “a major technical accomplishment with potential practical applications as well as being of fundamental scientific importance” that “will have a very large impact, both within the scientific community and in the grand public.”

A number of experts spoke highly of the new achievement from China.

This demonstration of the photon entanglement distribution from a satellite to very distant ground bases is “a giant step” forward in quantum information and quantum networking development, Alexander Sergienko, a quantum physicist at Boston University, told Xinhua.

“This is a heroic experiment because so many detrimental factors were working against researchers (and) attempting to destroy a quantum nature of the photonic entanglement in this landmark experiment,” Sergienko said. “It is hard to overestimate the impact of this result on the development of modern quantum physics.”

“Chinese researchers deserve a greatest praise and acknowledgement of their skills, persistence, and devotion to science,” said Sergienko.

Seth Lloyd, director of the Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, expressed similar views, calling this work “a true breakthrough” in the technology of entanglement distribution.

“The experiment shows that long-range quantum communication is indeed technologically feasible and holds out the promise of the construction of long-range quantum communication networks in the near future,” Lloyd told Xinhua.

QUANTUM RACE

China’s Micius, with a design life of two years, was the world’s first satellite launched to do quantum experiments. Teams from Canada, Germany, Austria, Singapore and other countries also have plans for quantum space experiments.

“I heard that,” Pan said. “Following our first success, many groups worldwide are now trying to develop quantum science satellites or payloads.”

Thomas Jennewein, an associate professor of quantum information at the University of Waterloo, who is currently pursuing a quantum communication satellite project in Canada, said that there is a “quantum space race.”

“I would like to say that the Chinese group has overcome several major technical and scientific challenges and clearly demonstrated their world leadership in the field of quantum communication,” Jennewein told Xinhua.

“I expect that the results from the Chinese mission will even enhance the international efforts to perform quantum satellite missions,” said the expert