A wireless link builds the nation’s longest quantum network

Extending 161 miles across Long Island and the New York metropolitan area, the nation’s longest quantum network now incorporates a wireless link established by Justine Haupt of Brookhaven Lab. Haupt developed the telescope technology, specifically the mirrors, to enable the transmission of light particles containing quantum information through open air. “An FSO link is analogous to the wireless technology that allowed today’s classical internet to expand beyond wired connections,” Haupt said, marking the first permanent free-space optical link of its kind and a crucial step toward a practical quantum internet. A 13-mile stretch of open air now carries quantum information between Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University, extending the nation’s longest quantum…