Experimental demonstration of five-photon entanglement and open-destination teleportation

Based on the technique developed in previous multi-photon interferometry, we experimentally combine an entangled four-photon state with a single photon state to achieve the first ever entanglement of five photons in the world. And then making use of this five-photon source, we also demonstrate a novel type of quantum teleportation, called open-destination teleportation. Our experiment result is of great importance in experimental test of some fundamental problems in quantum mechanics, information theory, cryptography, and quantum computation etc. Also our experimental method will greatly promote the study of distributed quantum communication, linear-optics based quantum computation, and experimental test of some fundamental problems in quantum mechanics etc.