Researchers with the National Institute of Standards and Technology have set a new distance record for quantum teleportation, sending quantum data through fibers four times longer than the previous record-holder. Scientists successfully sent and received quantum information, encoded in light photons, through 62 miles of fiber. Other experiments have successfully teleported quantum data over longer distances through free space, but quantum communication through fibers is more difficult -- and of more significance to practical applications of the technology. What made the feat possible, researchers say, is the newly designed photon detectors deployed on the far-end of the fibers.
Quantum teleportation is a process by which quantum information (e.g. the exact state of an atom or photon) can be transmitted (exactly, in principle) from one location to another, with the help of classical communication and previously shared quantum entanglement between the sending and receiving location.
