  Quantum teleportation is a process in which an unknown quantum state is
transferred between two spatially separated subspaces of a bipartite quantum
system which share an entangled state and communicate classically. In the case
of photonic states, this process is probabilistic due to the impossibility of
performing a two-particle complete Bell state analysis with linear optics. In
order to achieve a deterministic teleportation scheme, harnessing other degrees
of freedom of a single particle, rather than a third particle, has been
proposed. Indeed, this leads to a novel type of deterministic teleportation
scheme, the so-called hybrid teleportation. Here we report the first
realization of photonic hybrid quantum teleportation from spin-to-orbital
angular momentum degrees of freedom. In our scheme, the polarization state of
photon A is transferred to orbital angular momentum of photon B. The teleported
states are visualized in real-time by means of an intensified CCD camera. The
quality of teleported states is verified by performing quantum state
tomography, which confirms an average fidelity higher than 99.4%. We believe
this experiment paves the route towards a novel way of quantum communication in
which encryption and decryption are carried out in naturally different Hilbert
spaces, and therefore may provide means of enhancing security.
