Scientists in collaboration with Nokia have developed a method to bring a form of quantum cryptography to mobile phones. The method is based on quantum key distribution, which normally only works with ‘fixed’ setups.
The method was developed by the University’s Center for Quantum Photonics in Bristol, in collaboration with Nokia. The development team demonstrated a form of quantum key distribution suitable for mobile phones. This form of encryption, which works with entangled particles, normally requires large setups of hardware, but the scientists and Nokia managed to build the hardware into mobile phones. The concept makes it possible to use quantum encryption on mobile phones in the future.
To enable mobile quantum cryptography, the scientists developed a new protocol, the details of which they published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters. The system works with entangled photons, a quantum mechanical property in which two particles are ‘coupled’ and assume each other’s properties. In the future, the makers want to test their concept in practice on a conventional mobile network.
Scientists have previously demonstrated that it is possible to exchange keys for quantum encryption via a conventional fiber optic network. And recently scientists managed to send quantum information from entangled photons to multiple receivers, a development that contributes to the creation of quantum mechanical encryption methods.