Chinese Scientists Successfully Demo ‘Quantum Magpie Bridge’ Increasing Speed of Quantum Communication Four-Fold

(GlobalTimes) Chinese scientists have successfully presented an experimental demonstration of “quantum magpie bridge” for the first time internationally, with the speed of quantum communication increasing four-fold, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Li Chuanfeng, Zhou Zongquan and other scientists from the Guo Guangcan academician team of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, East China’s Anhui Province, have successfully completed an experimental demonstration of heralded entanglement between absorptive quantum memories. Their findings were also published in Nature.
The two nodes, **Niu Lang and Zhi Nü, named for two figures in ancient Chinese fairy tale, are built separately by 3.5 meters. Each contains a polarization-entangled photon-pair source and a solid-state quantum memory with bandwidth up to 1 gigahertz, and a joint Bell-state measurement in the middle station can herald the distribution of maximally entangled states between the two quantum memories successfully
The wideband absorptive quantum memories used in the nodes which are compatible with deterministic entanglement sources and are capable of simultaneously supporting multiplexing, facilitating the introduction of the construction of practical construction of practical solid-state quantum repeaters and high-speed quantum networks.

**Niulang and Zhinü are two lovers in a Chinese legend who are allowed them to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month when a flock of magpies swarm into the sky and create a bridge for them to cross.