{"id":44683,"date":"2025-04-23T19:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T19:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44683\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T19:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T19:55:09","slug":"scientists-achieve-quantum-communication-across-155-miles-of-conventional-fiber-optics-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44683\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists achieve quantum communication across 155 miles of conventional fiber optics | Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future of quantum technology<\/a> doesn\u2019t depend on every home, business, or organization owning a superpowered computer. Its true potential lies in the internet \u2014 in a network of connections that enables even lower-capacity machines to tap into the advantages of quantum computing, whether from research centers or corporations, ultimately benefiting end users.<\/p>\n

But building such a network requires the ability to transmit quantum information between machines over long distances without relying on costly infrastructure. A study published in Nature on Wednesday<\/a> marks a major step in that direction, demonstrating the coherent transmission of quantum data across 155 miles (250 kilometers) of standard fiber-optic cable in Germany \u2014 without the need for cryogenic cooling.<\/p>\n

Mirko Pittaluga, lead author of the research and a scientist at Toshiba, calls the breakthrough a \u201crecord\u201d \u2014 not just for the distance covered, but for the infrastructure used, and the coherence achieved in communication<\/a>. \u201cIt is fundamental to the phase-based architecture of the quantum internet,\u201d the researchers state in the paper.<\/p>\n

Antia Lamas, director of the Quantum Networks Center at Amazon Web Services (AWS), who was not involved in the study, says this next-generation internet will be effective \u201cwhen all the capabilities of the quantum network are available.\u201d According to Lamas, its implications will be critical, \u201cfirst in the area of security and, later, for connecting quantum computers and expanding their potential.\u201d \u201cThese networks will allow us to implement amazing capabilities,\u201d she told EL PA\u00cdS.<\/p>\n

The recent achievement goes beyond the 155-mile communication distance between Frankfurt and Kehl in Germany. The same research group previously demonstrated quantum data transmission over more than 372 miles (600 kilometers) of cable. What sets this study apart is the maintenance of quantum coherence using a conventional underground fiber-optic network under everyday environmental conditions.<\/p>\n

This is significant because quantum communications have historically depended on specialized equipment \u2014 such as cryogenic systems<\/a> \u2014 to reach the near-absolute-zero temperatures that particles need to preserve their properties.<\/p>\n

Qubits<\/a>, the basic unit of quantum information which are exponentially more powerful than conventional bits, are extremely fragile and prone to errors due to their interactions with the environment. The expansion and contraction of optical fibers caused by changes in environmental conditions \u2014 such as temperature fluctuations \u2014 introduce errors and cause them to lose coherence.<\/p>\n

But the research published in Nature, in line with the previous work of the same team, has succeeded in overcoming this important limitation for the future quantum internet. \u201cOur research aligns the requirements of coherence-based quantum communication with the capabilities of existing telecommunication infrastructure,\u201d the researchers argue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the new techniques we have developed, further communication distance extensions for QKD [Quantum Key Distribution] are still possible, and our solutions can also be applied to other quantum communication protocols and applications,\u201d Pittaluga said after the 372-mile record.<\/p>\n

Before this experiment, the researchers simulated conditions in the laboratory, but within a controlled temperature environment. However, these previous tests showed more fluctuations. Under real-world communication conditions, the team managed to preserve the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn phase-based quantum communication systems, maintaining coherence among quantum states encoded by different users is crucial for system performance and error minimization,\u201d explains the Nature study.<\/p>\n

Carlos Sab\u00edn, a researcher in the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), who was not involved in the study, welcomed the new study. \u201cThe most innovative aspect of these new results is that they use already-existing commercial optical fiber and do not add more sophisticated technology typically found in quantum physics laboratories, such as cavities or cryogenic refrigerators,\u201d he told Science Media Center Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quantum bits used are photons generated with lasers, in contrast, for example, to other previous experiments, such as the one published last year in Nature<\/a>, in which quantum entanglement was generated in Boston between experimentally more complex systems, including the use of cavities. These systems might be more suitable for building quantum memories, but using optical photons, on the other hand, allows for quantum communication over very long distances.\u201d<\/p>\n

The physicist recalls another recent study<\/a>, published in Optica<\/a>, which tested quantum teleportation with photons over conventional, in-use optical fibers, although at a much shorter distance of about 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) and with error rates of 10%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese new results,\u201d Sab\u00edn added, referring to Wednesday\u2019s publication, \u201cwith small error rates of around 5%, represent a step forward in the possibility of creating quantum physics-based communication networks integrated with existing optical fiber technology in our cities. Although it should be noted that we are still at a very preliminary stage of development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittaluga\u2019s team believes they have reached a fundamental milestone for the quantum internet<\/a>: \u201cOur work demonstrates the compatibility of coherence-based quantum communications with existing network infrastructure and the practical implementation of an effective quantum repeater over commercial networks. We also achieved, to our knowledge, the longest distances for real-world QKD using non-cryogenically cooled technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings confirm that environmental conditions in operational telecommunications hubs are comparable to or even better than those simulated in laboratories, encouraging further commercialization and prototyping of coherent quantum communication equipment. This achievement lays the groundwork for future practical, high-performance quantum communications and networks,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

This high performance is another challenge in quantum communication. Traditional methods, such as quantum key distribution (QKD), with which Pittaluga\u2019s team has worked, and others, like chaotic encryption, often sacrifice speed or transmission capacity for the sake of security.<\/p>\n

However, in a study <\/a>by researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, they presented an integrated encryption and communication (IEAC) framework that combines robust security with high-capacity transmission performance, based on end-to-end deep learning (E2EDL), to achieve a record-breaking secure transmission of 1 TB per second over 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) of optical fiber, a milestone in communications over this secure, high-capacity, long-distance infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur work bridges the gap between security and transmission performance<\/a> in optical communications. By incorporating encryption at the physical layer, IEAC paves the way for secure, high-performance networks capable of supporting the data demands driven by AI,\u201d says Lilin Yi, co-author of the study and a professor at Shanghai University.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of quantum technology doesn\u2019t depend on every home, business, or organization owning a superpowered computer. Its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3845],"tags":[729,74,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-44683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-nature","9":"tag-physics","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114389039383928977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}