Governor Kathy Hochul announced a milestone in the partnership between the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory to extend New York State’s existing quantum communications network.
According to Hochul, the successful experiment by researchers at both institutions marks a key step in advancing this partnership and the cutting-edge quantum technology needed to expand the quantum network across the state. The expansion of the quantum communications network will enable new discoveries across various industrial sectors, bolster research and cybersecurity, improve computer operations, including for large language models, and unlock new opportunities to improve New Yorkers’ lives.
“New York State is committed to investing in cutting-edge research and innovation in emerging fields that move our society forward,” Hochul said. “The partnership between the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Laboratory serves as an excellent example of how collaboration can advance discovery and create transformative technologies.”
Last year, Governor Hochul announced that the state would invest $300 million to establish the Quantum Research and Innovation Hub at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The strategic investment creates New York’s premier facility dedicated to groundbreaking research and education in quantum science and technology, with a particular focus on quantum communication and networking.
The purpose of quantum computing is to improve computer operations and functions while requiring far less energy. This technology will be able to unlock computing power to address critical issues facing New York State, the nation, and the world, and will do so with far greater computing power to achieve faster results.
“Quantum technology has incredible potential to address complex global challenges and revolutionize industries,” said SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. “With continued investment and support from Governor Hochul and the State Legislature, this partnership embodies SUNY’s commitment to furthering groundbreaking research and positioning New York as a global leader.”
The SUNY Board of Trustees said, “The State University of New York at Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Laboratory’s partnership underscores what’s possible when academic excellence and world-class research come together.”
Researchers at SUNY Stony Brook and Brookhaven Lab have successfully transmitted light particles containing quantum information through open air between the two institutions. The researchers used a laser to generate quantum states of light, each containing just a few individual photons, in the state-of-the-art Quantum Watchtower at Stony Brook. From the Watchtower, the photons exited the core of an optical fiber approximately five microns in diameter, which is less than one-tenth the width of a human hair, and travelled 13 miles to Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Quantum Lighthouse in Upton. This is a key breakthrough toward extending the nation’s longest quantum network — already connecting eight nodes across several institutions — beyond the limits of fiber-optic cables.
The Quantum Lighthouse and Quantum Watchtower, along with a third facility under development at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, make up a free-space optical (FSO) link that adds a wireless component to the record-setting quantum network currently spanning 161 miles and several institutions across Long Island and the New York City metropolitan area.
“Extending our quantum communication network to include a wireless link is a major leap forward in our development of the Quantum Internet of Things,” SUNY President Andrea Goldsmith added. “By unlocking wireless quantum connectivity and incorporating it into the world’s only metropolitan-area network that supports quantum communication via entanglement, we are transforming secure data transmission while igniting Long Island as an innovation hub. Ultimately, this places New York State at the forefront of quantum information science and its application to secure communication for finance, healthcare and cybersecurity.”
Using this network, pioneered by SUNY Stony Brook and Brookhaven Lab, researchers can transmit entangled photons that are intrinsically linked by the laws of quantum mechanics through commercial fiber. Successfully testing the transmission of photons across free-space links demonstrates a promising path toward connecting quantum devices across long distances.
The researchers anticipate being able to use the free-space optical link to connect future quantum computers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Laboratory, and far beyond, which will enable them to work together and tackle some of the nation’s most pressing scientific challenges.
“Long Island has long been home to some of the world’s most important scientific institutions, and today’s milestone demonstrates what is possible when those institutions work together,” said Empire State Development Board Chairman Kevin Law. “The partnership between Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory is helping establish Long Island as a leader in quantum technology and positioning the region to attract talent, investment, and future economic growth for years to come.”
BNL Director John Hill said, “Brookhaven has long been at the forefront of quantum information science, and this achievement represents another important step in that journey. This free-space link is a key milestone in its own right, but it is also part of a much larger roadmap leading to distributed quantum systems. We will continue advancing the network’s capabilities so that researchers can connect increasingly sophisticated quantum systems together to address a range of problems from computation to communication to sensing in ways that just aren’t possible today.”