Qunnect, a Brooklyn-based startup, says it has built commercial hardware capable of distributing quantum-entangled photons across a live fiber network — and is now selling access to that infrastructure.
In February, the company used its flagship Carina rack hardware to perform entanglement swapping across 17.6 kilometres of fiber-optic cable connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan through a commercial data center, according to the announcement. The system swapped entanglement between 5,400 photon pairs per hour, running autonomously for days — more than double the rate achieved in previous comparable experiments.
Entanglement swapping transfers the quantum-entangled property from one photon pair to another, extending the reach of a quantum network without breaking the underlying physics that makes it tamper-evident. When entangled photons are intercepted or disturbed, the interference is detectable — a property the company describes as making the communications effectively unhackable.
How the Hardware Works
Before a Carina rack can distribute entanglement, a separate source device must generate photon pairs. That source contains a small glass-and-metal box filled with rubidium atom vapor, which is struck with laser light to produce entangled pairs. Mehdi Namazi, the company’s chief executive, says his team increased photon output by adjusting the angle at which laser beams enter the chamber.
The Carina racks — bright magenta boxes stacked together — then route those pairs through fiber to connected endpoints. Qunnect‘s network currently uses more than 500 kilometres of fiber linking facilities in New York City, Long Island, and upstate New York, including labs at New York University and Columbia University. The system can be controlled remotely and run without manual intervention for weeks.
“If you have two of these racks, you can have distribution of entanglement within a few hours,” Namazi said.
The company keeps one rack at a Manhattan data center operated by telecoms firm QTD Systems. Peter Feldman of QTD described the barrier to entry plainly: “I don’t have to know anything about quantum physics.”
Near-Term Applications
A fully realized quantum internet capable of replacing conventional communications remains distant. Photon loss over long distances is an unsolved problem, and metropolitan quantum networks in Hefei, China, and Chicago, Illinois face the same constraints.
But the company argues useful applications exist now. Entangled photons can be embedded into conventional data streams to act as a detection layer — any attempt to intercept the signal disturbs the quantum state and reveals the intrusion. A second application, cited by Alexander Gaeta of Columbia University, who collaborates with the firm, involves using entanglement to verify the physical location of a party exchanging sensitive information.
Namazi has pointed to the concentration of financial institutions in lower Manhattan as a near-term commercial market. The company declined to specify current customers or revenue figures.
Photo by Winston Chen on Unsplash
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