The Future of Quantum Communication: Single Photon Teleportation Explained

What Is Quantum Teleportation and How Does It Work?

While sounding like some fanciful concept from a science-fiction movie, quantum teleportation is actually a real phenomenon studied for decades.

This happens when 2 different particles are “paired/bonded” together, something called quantum entanglement.

In this case, when two particles are linked, regardless of the distance between them, they exchange information over great distances, without physically carrying it. In some cases, it even appears as though information exchange happens quicker than the speed of light, something theoretically impossible.

How it works and what it means for the fundamental aspect of our reality is still hotly debated by quantum physicists. However, we know this is a very real and measurable quantum effect, that could allow for perfectly secured and instantaneous communications.

The Current State of Quantum Teleportation Technology

Breakthroughs Enabling Practical Quantum Data Transfer

Recent progress has been made to leverage quantum entanglement and teleportation into practical means to transfer data.

One advance was the discovery that an ordinary optical fiber network could be used for the task, even when mixed with regular Internet traffic. This opens the possibility of practical quantum telecommunication without having to build a dedicated parallel network to the normal one currently used.

Another advance is the possibility to network quantum computers together. Oxford researchers used optical fibers to connect together qubits and get them entangled, using photons (light particles). It could open the way for modular quantum computers, with each subunit connected together.

Lastly, QNodeOS, an operating system for quantum calculations, would provide the software basis for operating such a network of quantum computers.

Limitations and Challenges of Quantum Teleportation

Most quantum teleportation devices currently considered are of the “linear” type, where the photons are directly transferred from point A to Point B.

This is often problematic, as this type of photon transfer inherently adds noise to the signal, potentially making the telecommunication fail, or at least a less efficient.

Another issue is that most sources of photons will not produce a single photon pair, making it complex to determine entanglement.

In particular, it is common for entanglement sources to produce more than a single pair of photons at once, making it unclear whether the two used in teleportation are truly entangled.

How Nonlinear Optics Could Transform Quantum Communications

A team of researchers at the University of Illinois might have created a new source of photons that would radically improve the performance of communications based on quantum teleportation.

They published their results in Physical Review Letters¹, under the title “Faithful Quantum Teleportation via a Nanophotonic Nonlinear Bell State Analyzer”.

The key idea is that this technique helps reduce the problem of multiple photon emission, making the technique more reliable thanks to the underlying principles of nonlinear optics.

Understanding Nonlinear Optics in Quantum Technology

Linear optics is the regular optic science taught in school, where the light directly interacts with a prism for example.

In non-linear optics, the reaction of the medium in which the light passes depends on the light’s wavelength, intensity, direction, and polarization.

“Multiphoton noise occurs in all realistic entanglement sources, and it’s a serious problem for quantum networks.

The appeal of nonlinear optics is that it can mitigate the effect of multiphoton noise by virtue of the underlying physics, making it possible to work with imperfect entanglement sources.”

Elizabeth Goldschmidt – Illinois professor of physics

Nonlinear optical components cause photons of different frequencies to combine and create new photons at new frequencies. In this specific case, the “sum frequency generation” (SFG) was used.

Photon Merging via Sum Frequency Generation (SFG)

Thanks to the merger of photons occurring during SFG, only these specific photons’ frequencies can be used, greatly reducing the noise from multiple photons happening if using linear optics.

Source: SciTechDaily

This is not a new idea, but the problem so far was that making SFG happen was so difficult that there were never enough photons to be a practical means of transferring information.

“Researchers have known about this for a long time, but it was not fully explored due to the low probability of successful SFG.

In the past, the best that was achieved was 1 in 100 million. Our achievement is realizing a factor of 10,000 increase in conversion efficiency to 1 in 10,000 with a nanophotonic platform.”

Kejie Fang – Associate professor of electrical and computer engineering

New Materials Making Nonlinear Quantum Optics Feasible

This 10,000x boost in efficiency suddenly makes non-linear optics a viable option to produce the photons that will be used to transfer data through the measurement of their entanglement.

It was achieved thanks to an indium-gallium-phosphoryl material developed by the researchers.

“Our nonlinear system transmits quantum information with 94% fidelity, compared to the theoretical limit of 33% on systems using linear optical components,”

Kejie Fang – Associate professor of electrical and computer engineering

What’s Next for Quantum Teleportation and Networking?

This is for now a very theoretical progress, in the sense that it completely changes how researchers will have to build quantum telecommunication systems in the future, as currently all quantum networking protocols (including quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping) use linear-optical design.

Combined with the progress made in transferring entangled photons in regular optical fiber networks, this could radically change the reliability and efficiency of this telecommunication method, bringing interconnected quantum computers much closer than previously thought possible.

Investing in Trapped-Ion Quantum Computing

As these quantum communication advances become increasingly viable, companies like IonQ (IONQ -0.95%) are positioning themselves to commercialize the technology.

IonQ is a quantum computing company using trapped-ion technology, founded by pioneering scientists in the field from the University of Maryland and Duke University. It was publicly listed on the NYSE in 2021.

IonQ quantum computing platforms are able to produce a 99.9% fidelity result. It currently uses a 64-barium ion chain, producing a 36-algorithmic qubit (AQ). The chain organization allows for much quicker computing than other trapped-ion designs without losing fidelity.

Source: IonQ

IonQ acquired Qubitekk in January 2025, adding to its operations the company’s team and 118 patents to IonQ. Qubitekk’s specialty is in quantum networks, using photonic interconnects, enabling quantum clusters, and advancing quantum internet capabilities.

Quantum networks should facilitate highly secure communications and ultimately allow for distributed quantum computing. Considering how quickly the field is moving, expertise and IPs on this topic might prove crucial for IonQ’s future.

IonQ is also developing a partnership with NKT Photonics (NKT.CO) to help develop future data center-ready quantum computers.

It is also collaborating with Imec on photonic integrated circuits and chip-scale ion trap technology to scale up the company’s qubit count and system size and costs.

Instead of developing its own SDK (Software Development Kit), the company is supporting all the major ones at once, and partnering with many leading companies for developing new quantum computing applications.

Source: IonQ

Together with its competitor Quantinuum, part of Honeywell (HON +2.23%), IonQ is closer to developing commercial quantum computers, with its focus on high fidelity, lower qubit count trapped-ion systems.

IonQ is the closest to a pure quantum computing stock for investors who are less interested in the activities of other leaders like Google, Intel, IBM, or Honeywell.

Its early success has helped it build a strong network of partnerships with other quantum computing innovators to keep pushing this technology forward, with a recent re-focus on networked quantum computers.

As quantum entanglement telecom becomes increasingly reliable, the combination of many high-reliability trapped-ion quantum computers might be a solid option for the first commercial application of this technology.

IonQ Stock News and Latest Developments

Study Reference:

^{1. Joshua Akin, Yunlei Zhao, Paul G. Kwiat, Elizabeth A. Goldschmidt, and Kejie Fang.(2025) Faithful Quantum Teleportation via a Nanophotonic Nonlinear Bell State Analyzer. Physical Review Letters134, 160802 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.160802}