In the quest to build a quantum internet, scientists are putting their memories to the test. Quantum memories, that is.
“These two impressive studies are pushing out of the lab and into real-world implementations,” says physicist Benjamin Sussman of the University of Ottawa, who was not involved with the research. “These are not just toy systems, but are really the first steps toward what future networks will look like.”
In labs on the Harvard campus, researchers entangled two quantum memories by sending photons on a 35-kilometer trek through Boston and Cambridge, Mass., via telecommunications fiber linking the two memories.The researchers used quantum memories built from a tiny hunk of diamond in which two of the diamond’s normal carbon atoms are replaced by one atom of silicon. That substitution creates a defect that serves as a quantum bit, or qubit.