Quantum Information Research at NIST: Goals and Vision

What Good Is Quantum Information?

What is Quantum Information?

Quantum Computing

• Ion Qubits, Neutral Atom Qubits, and Superconducting Qubits
• Beam Me Up Einstein!
  NIST Demonstrates Teleportation
• Engineering Secrets: How to Entangle Ions

Quantum Communications

• Making a Quantum "Key"
• Quantum Information Theory

Selected NIST publications

Contact information

What Good is Quantum Information?

Quantum information is the latest science behind secret codes and code breaking, essential tools for commerce and security.
Secret codes and code breaking have played dramatic roles in world history. The Nazis had a critical advantage early in World War II, for instance, thanks to the secrecy of their military communications, encrypted by the legendary Enigma machine. But eventually, Nazi messages were being deciphered routinely by mathematicians and other cryptanalysts, with the help of sailors and secret agents. Code-breaking technologies and ingenuity gave the Allies a significant advantage.

More recently, encryption has been described as a leading technological advance of the last millennium. NIST’s current Advanced Encryption Standard, for example, helps ensure the security of billions of dollars in electronic transactions every day.

Quantum systems may provide the new “locks and keys” for information. Quantum computers, if they can be built, could break today’s best public-key encryption systems, used to protect commercial communications. At the same time, quantum communications systems, if well designed, provide a new approach to “unbreakable” encryption to keep messages secret. Quantum cryptography systems are already being commercialized, and the market is predicted to reach hundreds of millions of dollars within the next few years.

Quantum computers also could have other applications. They potentially could be used to optimize complex systems such as airline schedules, accelerate database searching, and develop novel products such as fraud-proof digital signatures. Or they might be used to simulate other quantum systems, such as complex biological systems, for the purpose of designing new drugs. The history of science suggests that important applications will arise that cannot be imagined today; in 1947 when the transistor was invented, no one envisioned the $600 billion U.S. electronics and related industries it would create.

Research on quantum information is also likely to have important spin-offs in measurement science. The ability to precisely engineer quantum states may lead to the development of improved atomic clocks and advanced navigation instruments. The work also will support advances in nanotechnology, a field that has become a national priority.

Success in these applications is not assured. Many technical challenges need to be overcome before the full potential of quantum information systems can be demonstrated and exploited. The research described in this brochure is only the beginning of this work.

Date created: 4/11/06
Last updated: 4/06
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov