The technology race to harness quantum physics is intense, and in Denmark development is gaining extra momentum as DTU’s cleanroom in the fall is expected to open its doors for projects. first in a NATO testing and manufacturing facilities.
Projects focusing on quantum computer development and quantum encryption will be given high priority, according to Professor Ulrik Lund Andersen at DTU.
“Quantum technology for secure communication or decryption of communications is of great military strategic importance. Today, you can’t read encrypted information, but if you store it and then crack the code with a quantum computer — expected to be developed within the next decade — you can read it. communications. Therefore, we now need to protect important data with encryption keys based on quantum technology,” said Ulrik Lund Andersen.
According to Professor Ulrik Lund Andersen at DTU, projects focused on quantum computer development and quantum encryption will be given high priority in a new NATO testing and manufacturing facility. Image credit: DTU
He is working with colleagues on an application for a new NATO test center, where he will form a start-up to further develop a membrane invented at DTU Physics. The membrane acts as a sensor to measure pressure and temperature, but it can also enable the transmission of quantum information between optical and electronic signals, which is important for the development of quantum networks.
New generation quantum technology
The development of quantum technology rests on the shoulders of first-generation quantum technologies formerly known as first-generation quantum technologies such as transistors, lasers and atomic clocks, which are essential essential for our modern society. Since the first generation of quantum technology, science has gained full control over the fundamental building blocks of quantum technology, and researchers are now able to create a completely new generation of quantum technology. new.
Quantum mechanics will have your head spinning trying to understand the physics of superposition: That objects — atoms, photons, protons — can assume two or more different states simultaneously. But it is principles like these that allow researchers to develop quantum technology and, for example, store information in entangled quantum mechanical states.
The researchers exploit the fact that particles such as atoms, light in the form of photons, or charged protons, appear in the quantum state in the form of superposition and entanglement — that the two objects are physically separate from each other. space is connected by quantum mechanics as a unit. These are states that researchers can now exploit to store data and help a quantum processor perform calculations at speeds that are, in some cases, several million times faster. with even the most powerful supercomputer.
In addition to privacy policy perspectives in quantum communications, quantum computers are important in driving the development of new medicine, machine learning for diagnostic technologies, and achieving many Development Goals. United Nations Sustainable Development. Research in this area takes place not only at universities and leading international research institutions such as DTU and the Niels Bohr Institute, but also at companies such as Google, Intel, IBM and Toshiba.
Quantum keys
Ulrik Lund Andersen explains that today’s research has documented that a quantum computer can solve specific tasks, but there is not yet a universal error-correcting quantum computer that can solve all of these tasks. the service it is required to perform.
However, there has been a need to increase data security, and therefore research is underway using quantum mechanics to encrypt data transmission. Specifically, in the development of the so-called quantum key distribution, where the principle of superposition is used to generate and distribute encryption keys between two parties, which can then protect their communications. . Here, quantum physics makes it possible to achieve the highest level of information security, and a hacker is exposed when the encryption keys are distributed — and therefore before any data is sent.
“We can see if someone is already ‘online’, and if so, we don’t send encrypted information. And vice versa, you can tell if there are no hackers on the network — and then the communication is 100% secure,” says Ulrik Lund Andersen.
Q-bit based data transmission
Denmark has internationally recognized strengths in the quantum field, where DTU Physics most recently in February 2022 carried out the Nordic region’s first quantum-secured data transfer in partnership with Denmark. partnership of Danske Bank and KPMG. The project is based on continuously variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD). The technology has been developed at DTU and allows the creation and sharing of secure encryption keys using standard telecommunications fiber, similar to the fiber optic network used for internet connections.
“We’ve advanced the technology so far we can actually commercialize it. There is no doubt the market is coming but the price of the technology is still too high and the hardware takes up too much space. But if we can compress it to fit more products, the technology will suit a larger market, and by producing in larger quantities, the price per unit will go down. And the task of bringing the technology down to the chip is definitely something that we can manage in the new NATO center at DTU,” said Ulrik Lund Andersen.
This is where a clean room is required at DTU Nanolab.
“We use large systems and components to develop the technology behind quantum keys, which is currently not possible on a chip scale. But in order to sell it, everything has to be made infinitely smaller while being inexpensive. And we do that using all of our — the laser, the modulator, and all of our other components, into one chip. Ulrik Lund Andersen says: “
The source: DTU
