Long Island Labs Crack Wireless Quantum Networking for the First Time
Stony Brook and Brookhaven researchers sent entangled photons through open air across 13 miles
Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University have pulled off something the United States has never seen before: transmitting quantum information wirelessly through the open atmosphere, covering 13 miles of Long Island sky between the two campuses.
The feat was demonstrated publicly Aug. 21, when scientists beamed single photons and entangled photon pairs from a rooftop facility at Stony Brook — dubbed the Quantum Watchtower — to a newly constructed perch atop Brookhaven Lab called the Quantum Lighthouse, the only building on the lab's campus with a direct line of sight to the university. An ultrafast camera captured the photons as they arrived through optical fibers no wider than a fraction of a millimeter.
The free-space optical link plugs directly into the existing 161-mile, eight-node quantum network already running through Long Island on fiber-optic cable, making it the longest metropolitan-area quantum network in the country.
"Brookhaven has long been at the forefront of quantum information science, and this achievement represents another important step in that journey," Brookhaven Lab Director John Hill said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the milestone and framed it as a step toward expanding New York State's quantum communications network. Empire State Development Board Chairman Kevin Law said the collaboration positions Long Island to draw research investment and economic growth for years ahead.
Funding for the work came from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, the National Science Foundation and New York's Empire State Development.
The team is now preparing a second wireless stretch: a 30-mile link across Long Island Sound to a partner facility under construction at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Researchers say the network could eventually connect quantum computers at both institutions and extend far beyond, enabling work on complex scientific problems that today's systems cannot handle.
Expected applications include advances in cybersecurity, large-scale computing and quantum teleportation research, officials said.
You Might Also Be Interested In
TRAFFIC ALERT: Route 454 Ramp To Northern State Closing Overnight
Move Over or Get Pulled Over, Police Targeting Work Zone Violations
Suffolk Renews Warning as Drowning Deaths Hit 14
