Quantum technologies, devices and systems that process, store, detect, or transfer information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, have the potential to outperform classical technologies in a variety of tasks. An ongoing quest within quantum engineering is the realization of a so-called quantum internet: a network conceptually analogous to today’s internet, in which distant nodes are linked through shared quantum resources, most notably quantum entanglement.

Researchers at Nanjing University and University of Science and Technology of China have developed a new ultra-thin metasurface that could contribute to this goal, as it can control the behavior of light, while also generating and directing entanglement across many channels.

This metasurface, presented in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, has so far proved to be promising for the development of scalable and integrated quantum technologies.