Quantum teleportation is one of the most important protocols in quantum
information. By exploiting the physical resource of entanglement, quantum
teleportation serves as a key primitive in a variety of quantum information
tasks and represents an important building block for quantum technologies, with
a pivotal role in the continuing progress of quantum communication, quantum
computing and quantum networks. Here we review the basic theoretical ideas
behind quantum teleportation and its variant protocols. We focus on the main
experiments, together with the technical advantages and disadvantages
associated with the use of the various technologies, from photonic qubits and
optical modes to atomic ensembles, trapped atoms, and solid-state systems.
Analysing the current state-of-the-art, we finish by discussing open issues,
challenges and potential future implementations.Comment: Nature Photonics Review. Comments are welcome. This is a
slightly-expanded arXiv version (14 pages, 5 figure, 1 table
