The research team had been looking into ways of filtering noise from bits of quantum information – quantum bits or qubits – sent across fibre-optic telecom links. As a result, they discovered that the filtering does not necessarily need to be done by the receiving party.

Brian Kirby from the laboratory’s Computational and Information Sciences Directorate said: “The nature of the quantum states in which the information is encoded is such that the filtering could be more easily done at a different location in the network.” Therefore, to fix a qubit sent over a certain route, one could apply a filter to other qubits that cross a different route.

Recent advancements of technologies in lasers and nanophysics, quantum optics and photonics have given researchers the tools to control and manipulate miniature quantum systems, such as individual atoms or photons – the smallest particles of light.

These developments have given rise to a new area of science: Quantum Information Science (QIS), which studies information encoded in quantum systems and encompasses quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensing among other subfields. QIS is believed to have the potential to shape the way information is processed in the future, according to the army researchers.

The US Army’s corporate research laboratory has invested in quantum information science research to guarantee continuous technological superiority in this rapidly developing field, which in turn will bring about multiple new technologies in computation, encryption, secure communication and precise measurements.

However, in order to utilise quantum information, scientists need to discover methods to process and transmit this information, with techniques being developed by Dr. Danial Jones and Dr. Michael Brodsky, as well as Kirby.

“In our classical world, information is often corrupted during manipulation and transmission – everyone is familiar with noisy cell phone connections in poor reception areas,” Brodsky said. “Thus, communication engineers have been working on a variety of techniques to filter out the noise.”

Due to the nature of these challenges, the team also invented a new technique that helps reduce the deleterious effects of the noise.

The developed models were experimentally validated using the recently built Quantum Networking Testbed at the lab, which simulates the practical telecom fibre infrastructure.

“We believe that this research has a potential to revolutionise cyber security and to enable secure secret sharing and authentication for the war fighter of the future,” Brodsky said. “In addition, it will have an impact on developing better sensors for position navigation and timing as well as quantum computers that might result in the synthesis of novel special materials with on-demand properties.”

In order to make quantum technology a reality, a large-scale field-deployed test bed must be built, to guide the development of both quantum hardware and software.

The study, titled ‘Tuning quantum channels to maximize polarization entanglement for telecom photon pairs’ was published in Nature Partner Journal Quantum Information.

In October, the ARL developed an algorithm that can locate humans and robots indoors or in areas with many obstacles where GPS signals are likely to be unavailable. 

The research team had been looking into ways of filtering noise from bits of quantum information – quantum bits or qubits – sent across fibre-optic telecom links. As a result, they discovered that the filtering does not necessarily need to be done by the receiving party.

Brian Kirby from the laboratory’s Computational and Information Sciences Directorate said: “The nature of the quantum states in which the information is encoded is such that the filtering could be more easily done at a different location in the network.” Therefore, to fix a qubit sent over a certain route, one could apply a filter to other qubits that cross a different route.

Recent advancements of technologies in lasers and nanophysics, quantum optics and photonics have given researchers the tools to control and manipulate miniature quantum systems, such as individual atoms or photons – the smallest particles of light.

These developments have given rise to a new area of science: Quantum Information Science (QIS), which studies information encoded in quantum systems and encompasses quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensing among other subfields. QIS is believed to have the potential to shape the way information is processed in the future, according to the army researchers.

The US Army’s corporate research laboratory has invested in quantum information science research to guarantee continuous technological superiority in this rapidly developing field, which in turn will bring about multiple new technologies in computation, encryption, secure communication and precise measurements.

However, in order to utilise quantum information, scientists need to discover methods to process and transmit this information, with techniques being developed by Dr. Danial Jones and Dr. Michael Brodsky, as well as Kirby.

“In our classical world, information is often corrupted during manipulation and transmission – everyone is familiar with noisy cell phone connections in poor reception areas,” Brodsky said. “Thus, communication engineers have been working on a variety of techniques to filter out the noise.”

Due to the nature of these challenges, the team also invented a new technique that helps reduce the deleterious effects of the noise.

The developed models were experimentally validated using the recently built Quantum Networking Testbed at the lab, which simulates the practical telecom fibre infrastructure.

“We believe that this research has a potential to revolutionise cyber security and to enable secure secret sharing and authentication for the war fighter of the future,” Brodsky said. “In addition, it will have an impact on developing better sensors for position navigation and timing as well as quantum computers that might result in the synthesis of novel special materials with on-demand properties.”

In order to make quantum technology a reality, a large-scale field-deployed test bed must be built, to guide the development of both quantum hardware and software.

The study, titled ‘Tuning quantum channels to maximize polarization entanglement for telecom photon pairs’ was published in Nature Partner Journal Quantum Information.

In October, the ARL developed an algorithm that can locate humans and robots indoors or in areas with many obstacles where GPS signals are likely to be unavailable.