Future communications networks that are less vulnerable to hacking could be closer to reality with an invention that measures the properties of single-photon sources with high accuracy.
Built by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the device could help bring about “quantum communications” networks, which would use individual particles of light to send bits of information. Because each bit of information can be embedded in the quantum properties of a single photon, the laws of quantum mechanics make it difficult, if not impossible, for an enemy to intercept the message undetected.
Source: New NIST Spectrometer Measures Single Photons with Great Precision | NIST
