Quantum teleportation is very real. In fact, researchers have already teleported quantum information across cities and even into space. Though this sounds like an Avengers Endgame plot device, quantum teleportation has a host of powerful applications in the near future, mainly in the emergence of quantum technologies.

Recently, researchers from something very cool with quantum information. The team from Yokohama National University have managed teleport quantum information securely into one of the hardest structures on the planet, the diamond. The breakthrough could help us better share and store sensitive information.

A Brief Look and Quantum Teleportation

Let’s take a brief look at quantum teleportation. For the uninitiated, quantum teleportation is a process in which quantum information can be transmitted from one location to another, with the help of classical communication and previously shared quantum entanglement between the sending and receiving location. So, what does that mean exactly?

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In short quantum teleportation does not truly involve in the sci-fi sense “teleportation”, so do not get too excited yet. Quantum teleportation involves taking information from one place and recreating it in another all thanks to the quantum phenomena, quantum entanglement. Using this principle, researchers did something completely new with quantum information.

According to Hideo Kosaka, a professor of engineering at Yokohama National University and an author on the study, "Quantum teleportation permits the transfer of quantum information into an otherwise inaccessible space. It also permits the transfer of information into a quantum memory without revealing or destroying the stored quantum information."

The Diamond is Forever

In their study published in the journal Communications Physics, Japanese researchers manipulated an electron and a carbon isotope inside a diamond defect known to the science community as a nitrogen-vacancy center.

To make this even possible, researchers constructed an oscillating magnetic field around the diamond, then used microwave and radio waves to entangle the electron and the carbon atom’s nucleus.

When items become entangled, the effect on one particle affects the other. Picture one electron on the side of the table and the carbon atom’s on the other end of the table. Then the researchers had the manipulated electron absorb a photon holding quantum information.

The photon’s polarization state transferred to the carbon, which means the team was able to transfer quantum information.

"Our ultimate goal is to realize scalable quantum repeaters for long-haul quantum communications and distributed quantum computers for large-scale quantum computation and metrology," Kosaka said.