A new study published in Optica and conducted by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) broke the record for the distance travelled by "teleported" quantum information in light particles, according to Phys.org. The light particles travelled over 100 km of optical fiber, which is four times as long as the previous record. Although other researchers have teleported quantum particles further, they did so in free space as opposed to fiber-optic lines.
Quantum teleportation is the act of capturing the quantum states of an object and then transmitting the information to another area instantly, essentially recreating the exact object in another space, according to Yahoo! News.
Marty Stevens of NIST says that the achievement was possible due to the advanced single-photon detector that was made by the company.
"Only about 1 percent of photons make it all the way through 100 km of fiber," he said. "We never could have done this experiment without these new detectors, which can measure this incredibly weak signal."
Stevens claims that the study's results show plenty of potential and benefits over the previous quantum teleportation efforts that utilized free space.
"If you wanted quantum teleportation in the real world - say, from one city to another - you might not necessarily have a direct line-of-sight between two locations, and you wouldn't want to be limited to working at night, so fiber optics might be more feasible," he said.
Scientists have been experimenting with quantum teleportation since 1998, according to Live Science, and these results could be used to help develop more secure Internet connections.
"A quantum Internet could allow you to establish communications channels that are much more secure than what we have with the standard encryption protocols we use everyday nowadays," said Stevens.
