Qunnect, a provider of quantum-secure networking technology, announced that its GothamQ quantum network, using existing commercial fiber cable, surpassed previous performance metrics in enabling the distribution of polarization-based quantum entanglement while delivering exceptionally high rates of preservation and fidelity.
According to the company, this technical achievement showcases Qunnect's quantum networking components to perform entanglement-based protocols over prolonged durations in real-world environments.
Qunnect claims that unlike other quantum networks, its differentiator is that it uses atoms at room temperature to generate polarization-entangled photons since these qubits are native to other quantum devices such as sensors and computers. Qunnect has demonstrated a path forward for other quantum networks to host applications beyond secure communications by constructing a stable network to distribute polarization qubits.
For this demonstration, the Qunnect team used its hardware instruments to generate, distribute, and preserve entangled photons over 34 kilometers of fiber within the GothamQ network. Its QU-SRC maintained generation rates between one to ten million polarization-entangled photon pairs per second. Meanwhile, the QU-APC preserved the fidelity of the transmitted photons through an automated protocol, minimizing the quantum bit error rate.
Qunnect said the result was a 99.84% network uptime over 15 days of continuous operation.
During that time, the team was able to achieve two breakthroughs:
Distributed and preserved 500,000 polarization-entangled pairs per second in commercial-grade fiber channels with 17dB of transmission loss
Maintained a quantum bit error rate below 2.5%
Qunnect chose to encode quantum bits of information with light polarization for this test, since polarization qubits are native to other quantum devices such as quantum sensors and computers. Qunnect has demonstrated a path forward for other quantum networks to host applications beyond secure communications by constructing a stable network to distribute polarization qubits.
"This work demonstrates that the field of entanglement distribution networking is ready to transition from proof-of-concept experiments to the era of reliable, 24/7 operation,” said Mehdi Namazi. "Important to note, we used polarization qubits, which are highly practical for transactions at the end nodes, yet notoriously hard to preserve in long, deployed fiber optic channels."
While this latest demonstration was done on its network, Qunnect has set its eyes on transforming traditional telecom infrastructure into quantum networks. As part of that effort, the company’s products are all housed in standard server racks. They are currently installed and operating on testbeds around the world. Later this year, Qunnect plans to release a full-rack quantum networking system to enable users to replicate the entanglement distribution protocols demonstrated in its recent test.
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