Scientists entangle quantum memories over 50 km

Scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China have managed to entangle two quantum memories (the quantum equivalent of classical computing memory) over 50 kilometres of fibre optic cable. The most significant element of this research is that the scientists have succeeded in ‘extending the entangling distance in [optical] fibre between quantum memories to the city scale’, according to Jian-Wei Pan, team leader at the Chinese university. The entanglement of remote quantum memories over long distances is a key element towards the development of a quantum Internet that would enable ‘revolutionary applications such as distributed quantum computing’, the researchers noted.