Quantum teleportation is on its way to becoming routine. New work demonstrates that quantum information can teleport on demand, using for the first time a device that closely resembles a computer chip.

The techniques laid out in two new studies are major steps toward developing quantum computers and ensuring secure communication over quantum networks, says physicist Eugene Polzik of the University of Copenhagen, who was not involved in either study.

Unlike Star Trek’s transporters, quantum teleportation does not physically transport objects. Instead it shuttles information about the properties of an object and incorporates those properties into a new object. For a simple particle like a photon, that’s just as effective as moving it: A photon that has the same polarization, energy and other attributes as another photon might as well be the same photon.