New device accelerates development of extraordinary quantum networks (U.S. Army CCDC)
Army scientists have developed a radically new quantum device that can store many quantum excitation patterns at once, opening the door for the creation of a quantum network. A quantum network is the Holy Grail for scientists because it likely can never be wiretapped and it would offer extraordinarily powerful computing and sensing capabilities. Researchers from the Quantum Science Group at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory constructed a test-bed quantum networking apparatus, consisting of millions of rubidium atoms trapped within laser beams and cooled to nearly absolute zero. There is a worldwide race between research groups to develop quantum devices that can perform ultra-secure networking and computation. The lab's new results are a big step toward achieving these goals, researchers said.