Brookhaven And Stony Brook Researchers Demonstrate ‘Wireless’ Capability for Quantum Network

Insider Brief

• Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University researchers transmitted quantum information through 13 miles of open air, marking the first U.S. demonstration of its kind and extending their quantum network beyond fiber-optic cables.
• Nighttime tests successfully distributed and measured entangled photons across the free-space optical link, advancing efforts to develop wireless quantum communications.
• Researchers plan to extend the network with a 30-mile link to Yale University and ultimately explore satellite connections that could support long-distance quantum communications and distributed quantum systems.

PRESS RELEASE — Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook University) have successfully transmitted light particles containing quantum information through open air between the two institutions. This is the first demonstration of its kind in the United States and a key milestone toward extending the nation’s longest quantum network — already connecting eight nodes across several institutions — beyond the limits of fiber-optic cables.

“The future of quantum information science will depend not only on what individual quantum computers and devices can do but on our ability to connect them,” said DOE Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil. “As DOE advances its Genesis Mission, we are building toward an interconnected research ecosystem where advanced computing, artificial intelligence, and quantum technologies can work together to tackle some of our most complex scientific challenges. The capabilities demonstrated by Brookhaven Lab and Stony Brook University today are an important step toward making that vision possible.”