Bar-Ilan Runs 23 Quantum Channels on One Light Beam
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- Bar-Ilan University researchers demonstrated quantum information processing across 23 independent spectral channels simultaneously, using broadband squeezed light, spectral shaping, and parametric homodyne detection.
- The approach targets a measurement bottleneck — standard detectors capture only a tiny fraction of the optical bandwidth quantum light sources can already produce, leaving most capacity unused.
- As a proof of concept, the team ran continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) with eavesdropping detection on each of the 23 channels, and separately demonstrated multiplexed quantum teleportation.
- The underlying detection tool, parametric homodyne detection, is an ultrafast quantum detection method the same research group previously invented, now extended to parallel channel operation.
- Prof. Avi Pe'er, of Bar-Ilan's Department of Physics and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, led the study published in Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adw5085).
- The researchers say realistic systems could eventually support thousands of parallel channels, potentially boosting quantum protocol throughput by orders of magnitude.
Why it matters: The bottleneck in scaling quantum communication has quietly shifted from light sources to detectors, and this Bar-Ilan method attacks that gap directly. With 23 secure QKD channels proven on one beam and the team projecting thousands as feasible, the throughput ceiling for both secure key distribution and quantum teleportation could move from incremental gains to orders-of-magnitude jumps.
