Skip to main content

Menu
Search
Science News

Donate

Donate

Follow Us

Science News on Twitter

Science News on Facebook

Science News on Google+

The Society

The Society

Science News

Science News for Students

Student Science

Account

Log In or Join

Newsletter

Newsletter Sign Up

Science News

Latest Issue of Science News

iPad Edition

Subscribe

Archive

Current Issue

Explore

Topics

All

Atom & Cosmos

Body & Brain

Earth & Environment

Genes & Cells

Humans & Society

Life & Evolution

Math & Technology

Matter & Energy

Blogs

All

Context

Culture Beaker

Growth Curve

Scicurious

Science Ticker

Wild Things

Gory Details

Deleted Scenes

Editor's Picks

All

Mission to Pluto

MERS

Curiosity

Hubble @ 25

Replicability

Rosetta

Ebola

H7N9 flu

SN Magazine

June 13, 2015

May 30, 2015

May 16, 2015

May 2, 2015

April 18, 2015

April 4, 2015

March 21, 2015

March 7, 2015

Archives

Latest
Most Viewed

All News

Sort by
Published atMost Viewed

News

Pluto’s four littlest moons probably born in a crash

June 03, 2015

by Christopher Crockett

Letters to the Editor

Neandertal bling and more reader feedback

June 03, 2015

Editor's Note

Quantum meets chemistry, opening galaxy of possibility

June 03, 2015

by Eva Emerson

Growth Curve

Why breast-feeding really can be easier the second time around

June 03, 2015

by Laura Sanders

News

LHC set to see beyond Higgs

June 03, 2015

by Andrew Grant

Society Update

Announcing a new blog from Science News

Science Ticker

Chimps prefer roasted potatoes, hinting at origins of cooking

June 02, 2015

by Bruce Bower

Feature

Chikungunya is on the move

June 02, 2015

by Nathan Seppa

Introducing

Eruptions create new islands in the Red Sea

June 02, 2015

by Thomas Sumner

Science Visualized

Cosmic superlens gives telescopes a boost

June 02, 2015

by Christopher Crockett

Science Ticker

Parakeets can catch yawns from their neighbors

June 01, 2015

by Ashley Yeager

Society Update

Alumni reconnect

News

Mystery toxins in tainted New Zealand honey nabbed

June 01, 2015

by Beth Mole

Experiences

When swimming with manatees, mind the herd

June 01, 2015

by Sarah Zielinski

Television

How Homo sapiens became world’s dominant species

May 31, 2015

by Erin Wayman

Reviews & Previews

Extinct species may get a second chance

May 31, 2015

by Allison Bohac

News

Titanic typhoons are in the forecast

May 29, 2015

by Thomas Sumner

Society Update

Science Talent Search alumni event

Wild Things

Wealth of cephalopod research lost in a 19th century shipwreck

May 29, 2015

by Sarah Zielinski

Feature

Quantum chemistry may be a shortcut to life-changing compounds

May 29, 2015

by Rachel Ehrenberg

News

In another universe, free-range planets could host life

May 29, 2015

by Christopher Crockett

News

Dino eggs came in different colors

May 29, 2015

by Meghan Rosen

Culture Beaker

Attempt to shame journalists with chocolate study is shameful

May 28, 2015

by Rachel Ehrenberg

Society Update

Launching a mini-grant program for students

Science Ticker

Mice grow a thinner skin during long stays in space

May 28, 2015

by Meghan Rosen

News

Cerebellum may be site of creative spark

May 28, 2015

by Laura Sanders

50 Years Ago

Fifty years ago, ethylene research ripened

May 28, 2015

by Lila Guterman

Science Stats

One in 10 people with tattoos experience rashes, scarring or other problems

May 27, 2015

by Meghan Rosen

News

Double blow to skull is earliest evidence of murder, a 430,000-year-old whodunit

May 27, 2015

by Julia Rosen

Society Update

Teens win big at Intel Science Talent Search

News

Fossils suggest another hominid species lived near Lucy

May 27, 2015

by Bruce Bower

Wild Things

Wild dogs cause problems for people in Nepal

May 27, 2015

by Sarah Zielinski

Science Ticker

Everest could lose most of its ice by 2100

May 27, 2015

by Thomas Sumner

Science Ticker

NASA picks nine instruments for future mission to Europa

May 26, 2015

by Christopher Crockett

Science Ticker

White House hits pause on editing human germline cells

May 26, 2015

by Tina Hesman Saey

Society Update

Awards for Science News in 2014

Scicurious

Diet and nutrition is more complex than a simple sugar

May 26, 2015

by Bethany Brookshire

Science Stats

Genes and environment balance each other

May 26, 2015

by Tina Hesman Saey

The –est

Brightest galaxy discovered

May 26, 2015

by Christopher Crockett

News in Brief

Ebola gatekeeper protein identified

May 26, 2015

by Meghan Rosen

News

Next icy era may be on hold

May 26, 2015

by Thomas Sumner

Message from the Society

Empowering possibility

News

No-pain gene discovered

May 25, 2015

by Laura Sanders

Context

Nash’s mind left a beautiful legacy

May 24, 2015

by Tom Siegfried

For Daily Use

Here’s what game theory says about how to win in semifinals

May 22, 2015

by Andrew Grant

Science Stats

A billion years of evolution doesn’t change some genes

May 22, 2015

by Tina Hesman Saey

Wild Things

These birds provide their own drum beat

May 22, 2015

by Sarah Zielinski

View More

News

Quantum Physics

Physicists double their teleportation power

Quantum technique transfers two photon properties

By

Andrew Grant

1:00pm, February 25, 2015

Share Article

EMail

EMail

Print

Print

Twitter

Twitter

Facebook

Facebook

Reddit

Reddit

Google+

Google+

Magazine issue: Vol. 187, No. 6, March 21, 2015

EMail

EMail

Print

Print

Twitter

Twitter

Facebook

Facebook

Reddit

Reddit

Google+

Google+

Sponsor Message

&lt;a href=&quot;https://g.adspeed.net/ad.php?do=clk&amp;amp;zid=47245&amp;amp;wd=300&amp;amp;ht=250&amp;amp;pair=as&quot; target=&quot;_top&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;border:0px;&quot; src=&quot;https://g.adspeed.net/ad.php?do=img&amp;amp;zid=47245&amp;amp;wd=300&amp;amp;ht=250&amp;amp;pair=as&quot; alt=&quot;i&quot; width=&quot;300&quot; height=&quot;250&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

The bandwidth for quantum teleportation has doubled. A new technique transfers information about one particle so that another particle takes on two, rather than just one, of the original particle’s quantum properties.

Chinese researchers accomplished the feat by nesting one quantum teleportation apparatus inside another. “It’s impressive,” says Wolfgang Tittel, a quantum physicist at the University of Calgary in Canada. “It’s conceptually very simple but technically very difficult.”

The achievement, reported in the Feb. 26 Nature, does not bring scientists much closer to teleporting pens, puppies or people à la Star Trek. But teleporting multiple properties over large distances would enhance proposed quantum communication networks that rely on encoding information in particles’ delicate quantum properties.

The Chinese team, led by Jian-Wei Pan and Chao-Yang Lu of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, largely stuck to the tried-and-true teleportation technique proposed in 1993. That method requires three particles (in this case, particles of light, or photons): one being teleported plus a pair of particles that are quantum entangled. Entanglement establishes a connection between particles so that physicists can measure a property of one photon and determine what the value of that property will be when the partner photon is measured.

The teleportation process begins with a measurement that compares a property, usually polarization, of the photon getting teleported with the same property of one of the entangled photons. That measurement destroys the quantum nature of both photons (and usually the photons themselves). But the information gleaned from the comparison enables physicists to manipulate the third photon so that its polarization perfectly matches that of the original photon.

Then the team added a few tricks. First, the researchers entangled the particle pair so that two properties — polarization plus orbital angular momentum (the “twistiness” of the photon’s trajectory) — were connected. Then the physicists found a way to determine polarization while preserving the measured photons and some of their quantum properties. Whenever the polarization sensor obtained a certain measurement, one photon got fed into equipment that teleported the photon’s orbital angular momentum to a new photon. One last detector then compared the orbital angular momentum of the new photon with that of the original entangled photon. By completing both rounds of measurements, the physicists proved that they could manipulate the final particle so that its polarization and orbital angular momentum perfectly matched those of the original photon.

Lu says that he and his team expect to be able to teleport three properties of a photon within a few years. Even if they succeed, there’s still a long way to go before physicists can completely reproduce particles in a new location. A photon would be the simplest particle to fully teleport, Tittel says, yet even it has several other properties such as frequency and direction of propagation that would have to be transmitted. Still, he says that teleporting two properties is a big upgrade over just one. Each property can be considered a quantum bit of information, he says, so teleporting more properties increases the amount of data that a single particle can carry.

Citations

X.-L. Wang et al. Quantum teleportation of multiple degrees of freedom of a single photon. Nature. Vol. 518, February 26, 2015, p. 516. doi: 10.1038/nature14246.

Further Reading

A. Grant. Next-gen quantum teleportation in just 2 photons. Science News. Vol. 185, June 14, 2014, p. 12.

A. Grant. Quantum teleportation approaches the computer chip. Science News. Vol. 184, September 7, 2013, p. 9.

A. Witze. Quantum teleportation leaps forward. Science News. Vol. 181, June 30, 2012, p. 10.

T. Siegfried and L. Sanders. Quantum weirdness. Science News. Vol. 178, November 20, 2010, p. 20.

Printer-friendly version

Send by email

More from Science News

Sort by
Published atMost Viewed

Pluto’s four littlest moons probably born in a crash

Why breast-feeding really can be easier the second time around

LHC set to see beyond Higgs

Chimps prefer roasted potatoes, hinting at origins of cooking

Chikungunya is on the move

Eruptions create new islands in the Red Sea

Cosmic superlens gives telescopes a boost

Parakeets can catch yawns from their neighbors

Mystery toxins in tainted New Zealand honey nabbed

When swimming with manatees, mind the herd

How Homo sapiens became world’s dominant species

Extinct species may get a second chance

Titanic typhoons are in the forecast

Wealth of cephalopod research lost in a 19th century shipwreck

Quantum chemistry may be a shortcut to life-changing compounds

View More

Stay sharp with the latest news from the Society!Newsletter sign upX

Science News

Student Science

Science News for Students

Society for Science & the Public

SSP and Science News Staff

Join the Society

Gift Memberships

Donate

Renew

Sponsor/Advertise

Newsletter Sign Up

About Us

FAQ

Careers

Contact Us

Legal

Privacy Policy

Follow Us

Science News on Twitter

Science News on Facebook

Science News on Google+

The Society

The Society

Science News

Science News for Students

Student Science

Social Media

RSS

Contact Information & Copyright

1719 N Street, N.W. , Washington, D.C. 20036|202.785.2255|© Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2015. All rights reserved.

Source URL: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/physicists-double-their-teleportation-power