# Scientists Generate Quantum Entanglement Directly From Sunlight for the First Time

*2026-08-10 06:01 UTC · Science · 1 min read*

> Physicists in Canada and Germany produced quantum-entangled photons from concentrated sunlight for the first time, reaching 94% fidelity without using a laser.

Researchers from the University of Ottawa and Germany's Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light have generated quantum-entangled photons using ordinary sunlight instead of a laser, a feat long thought impossible because sunlight lacks the coherence lasers provide.

The team, led by graduate student Cheng Li under physicist Robert Boyd, concentrated sunlight through a household-window-sized Fresnel lens into an optical fiber roughly the width of a human hair, then fed it into a millimeter-scale nonlinear crystal to trigger spontaneous parametric down-conversion, splitting photons into entangled pairs. Quantum state tomography confirmed a fidelity of about 94%, nearly matching laser-based setups.

The result, published in the journal Optica, points toward quantum technologies that do not depend on power-hungry lasers, including satellites that could generate secure encryption keys from sunlight already abundant in orbit.

## Sources

- [sciencedaily.com](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260807035133.htm)
- [eurekalert.org](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1138247)

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TechTools News · https://techtools.cz/tools/news/article/2161-scientists-generate-quantum-entanglement-directly-from-sunlight-for-the-first
Česká verze: https://techtools.cz/tools/news/clanek/2234-vedci-poprve-vytvorili-kvantove-provazani-primo-ze-slunecniho-svetla