Issued patent
Secure Optical Quantum Communications
An issued NASA patent from the Technology Transfer catalog.
About this technology
Overview
NASA's Glenn Research Center has developed a method of using entangled-photon pairs to produce highly secure mobile communications that require mere milliwatts of power. Conventional gas Argon-ion laser sources are too large, expensive, and power-intensive to use in portable applications. By contrast, Glenn's patented optical quantum communication method produces entangled-photon pairs approximately a million times more efficiently than conventional sources, in a system that is small and light enough to be portable. Furthermore, because this method transmits digital information by detecting small temporal shifts between entangled photons, its superior signal-to-noise ratio facilitates highly secure communications in very noisy free space and fiber-optic environments. Originally developed for micro-robots used for deep space exploration, this technology represents a breakthrough for a wide variety of terrestrial, scientific, military, and other field-deployable applications including fiber-optic and satellite communications.