Quantum computing and cryptography technology developer Qubitekk Inc. has non-exclusively licensed a method developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to produce photons in a controlled, deterministic manner that promises improved speed and security when sharing encrypted data. An existing Qubitekk prototype will leverage ORNL's single-photon source approach, bringing the device closer to generating pairs of quantum light particles in a controlled, deterministic manner that is useful for quantum encryption. Courtesy of Qubitekk. Current encryption techniques rely on complex mathematical algorithms to code information that is decipherable only to the recipient who knows the encryption key. Cyber threats in the energy environment are growing in frequency, scale and sophistication. Scientists, including a team at the U.S. Department of Energy's ORNL, are leveraging the quantum properties of photons to enable novel cryptographic technologies that can better protect critical network infrastructures. The team built upon existing ideas of multiplexing, an approach that uses a series of light source systems comprising components common in fiber-optics. The ORNL system switches the speed and frequency of the heralded photon, carrying out the switching in the frequency domain that potentially reduces single-photon loss. "The goal is to specify and control every aspect of the photon's quantum state, constraining everything to a single mode so that the photons emitted from the single-photon source are identical – each one indistinguishable from the next,” said co-inventor Nicholas Peters at ORNL. The identical photon pairs can be used in developing quantum key encryption technologies that protect information from cyber threats when shared over existing machine-to-machine networks. Qubitekk commercializes the core technology required to speed the adoption of quantum computing and cryptography technologies and applications. ORNL is an American multi-program science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.