An international team of physicists entangled a qubit with its 3D equivalent, the “qutrit,” demonstrating a new way to handle higher-dimensional quantum information carriers.

Qubit-qutrit entanglement could lead to advantages in quantum computing, such as increased security and more efficient quantum gates, and enable novel tests of quantum mechanics. A qutrit is the quantum information analogue of the classical trit and carries more information: it exists in superpositions of its three basics states, while a qubit can exist in superpositions of its two states.