quantum communication

UCLA has received $75 million in grants from the National Science Foundation to advance quantum technology research. The funding will support the university's work in quantum science, a field seen as key to future computing, sensing and communications. The announcement highlights growing federal investment in quantum research at American universities.

Researchers report a quantum memory that has stored single photons for a record length of time, a result described as a major step towards building a quantum internet. Long-lived storage of individual light particles is a key requirement for quantum repeaters, the devices needed to send entangled signals across continental distances. The achievement is drawing attention as a milestone in quantum communication research.

Researchers at Nanjing University report an advance in quantum key distribution, achieving boosted key rates for networks serving three users simultaneously. The work targets practical multi-user quantum communication, where distributing secure keys to several parties at once has so far limited performance. Higher key rates could make quantum-secured communication networks more viable for real-world deployment.

A quantum communication link has been shown operating over fiber optic cable already carrying 400G Ethernet and 5G traffic, demonstrating that quantum networking can coexist with conventional high-capacity telecommunications on deployed infrastructure rather than requiring dedicated lines. This points to a cheaper path for integrating quantum-secure communications into existing networks.