First author Stefan Pogorzalek (r) and co-author Frank Deppe with the cryostat, in which they have realized a quantum LAN for the first time. Image: A. Battenberg / TUM
An international team headed by physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has, for the first time ever, experimentally implemented secure quantum communication in the microwave band in a local quantum network. The new architecture represents a crucial step on the road to distributed quantum computing. As of yet, there are no universal quantum computers in the world. But for the first time, an international team led by TUM physicists Rudolf Gross, Frank Deppe and Kirill Fedorov has successfully implemented secure quantum communication in a local network - via a 35-centimeter superconducting cable. "We have thus laid the foundation for implementing quantum communication systems in the very important microwave range," says Rudolf Gross, professor of technical physics at the Technical University of Munich and director of the Walter Meißner Institute (WMI), where the experiments took place. "This is a milestone. This puts the quantum internet, based on superconducting circuits and microwave communications, within arm's reach." Researchers at WMI have been pioneering the propagation of quantum microwaves for more than a decade.
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