Scientists have long known that the quantum teleportation it's possible. This basically refers to the property that speaks of two particles that share the same state even though they are separated in space. That is, with this type of teleportation an object is not sent instantly through space, but what would be sent would be the state of the particles that compose it from one place to another.
With this in mind, it will surely be much easier to understand how two independent teams have achieved perform a remote transfer of quantum information encoded in light particles. The most interesting thing is that this information has tended to cover a distance of several kilometers of fiber optic networks since the experiment has been carried out in both the cities of Calgary (Canada) and Hefei (China).
Teleporting quantum information across metropolitan networks is technically feasible.
Thanks to the demonstration carried out by two teams, in which it has become clear that the quantum teleportation over metropolitan networks is technically feasible, opens the way to the creation of a much more secure network since, thanks to the teleportation of light particles, for example, the information would not run the risk of being intercepted or hacked.
Now, despite the fact that today we already have the necessary technology for quantum teleportation in metropolitan networks, the truth is that over long distances we would need two independent light sources that emit an indistinguishable beam of light after having traveled through several kilometers of fiber which, in turn, represents a quite high technological challenge.
This challenge has been solved, at least partially, by the chinese scientists using light at the wavelength of telecommunications. This allows the speed at which signal light fades through the fiber to a minimum. In his experiment the light had to travel a distance of 12,5 kilometers. On the part of the Canadian scientists photons were used at the same wavelength and, in addition, at a wavelength of 795 manometers. This made it possible to achieve a faster quantum teleportation speed since they were able to travel 6,2 kilometers sending 17 photons per minute.
Further information: SINC