Researchers have broken a distance record in quantum communication by transmitting ultra-secure quantum-encrypted images nearly 13,000km from China to South Africa.
Researchers from Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the University of Science and Technology, Hefei, in China have successfully established the world's longest intercontinental ultra-secure quantum satellite link, spanning 12,900km.
Using the Chinese quantum microsatellite Jinan-1, launched into low-Earth orbit, this milestone marks the first-ever quantum satellite communication link established in the Southern Hemisphere.
The microsatellite was able to send pulses of laser light, put into special quantum states, from a rooftop in Beijing to another at Stellenbosch University near Cape Town.
The pulses formed a quantum key that was used to encrypt two images – one of China’s Great Wall and one showing part of Stellenbosch’s campus.
In the demonstration, a kind of encryption known as quantum key distribution (QKD...