Code for 'Unbreakable' Quantum Encryption Generated at Record Speed over Fiber

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NIST physicist Xiao Tang and colleagues have developed a quantum communications system that uses single photons to produce a raw encryption key at the rate of 4 million bits per second. Image credit: Robert Rathe
NIST physicist Xiao Tang and colleagues have developed a quantum communications system that uses single photons to produce a "raw" encryption key at the rate of 4 million bits per second. Image credit: © Robert Rathe

Raw code for "unbreakable" encryption, based on the principles of quantum physics, has been generated at record speed over optical fiber at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. The work, reported today at the SPIE Defense & Security Symposium in Orlando, Fla.,* is a step toward using conventional high-speed networks such as broadband Internet and local-area networks to transmit ultra-secure video for applications such as surveillance.


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