Entanglement is a counterintuitive concept that has a central place in quantum theory. Two or more particles that are entangled lose their individual properties while their joint state is perfectly defined. Entanglement is especially striking when the particles involved are spatially separated, resulting in non-local correlations and rich phenomena like teleportation that go far beyond the realm of classical physics.At the same time, theoretical work is uncovering the exciting and unique possibilities of entanglement that is controllably shared between multiple nodes of a fundamentally new type of network: a quantum network.Realization of a quantum network would provide scientists with a unique new platform allowing both for novel fundamental studies of nature as well as for applications in quantum information processing, communication and metrology
The QNETWORK project achieved the realization of the world's first multi-node entanglement-based quantum network. The network has three fully controlled multi-spin nodes at individual diamond defects connected by single-photon entanglement links. Using this quantum network we have demonstrated teleportation of qubits between nodes that do not share a direct connection, a key feature for the future quantum Internet. Besides these main demonstrations, the projected has yielded new insights into entanglement protocols and the physical realizations thereof, new knowledge of diamond NV centers, and promising results on a cavity-enhanced quantum network node based on NV centers.
