Quantum Internet Gets Closer

A recent quantum computing breakthrough is a step towards creating a quantum Internet—which would be "automatically secure," a researcher told Technology Review. A Northwestern University professor has created a fundamental element of a quantum computer, a quantum logic gate, within an optical fiber, where previous gates used laser passing through air. This “could lead to distributed networks,” said one expert.

“The obvious application is for long-distance quantum communication between two smaller quantum computers," he continued. Professor Prem Kumar’s fiber gate entangles photons to create qubits—bits for quantum computers. Unlike traditional bits, qubits compute with multiple values at the same time, meaning quantum computers with a few hundred qubits would easily outperform today’s greatest supercomputers. (More quantum computing stories.)