Quantum technology opts for diamonds

The technology, uses a diamond to produce a single photon of light to stop information being intercepted.

Head boffin Dr Shane Huntington, said existing communications systems were not foolproof because hackers or eavesdroppers can extract information from optical links without users being aware of it.

He said the system he is working on takes a laser and filters it until there is a single photon which is attached to the data.

"If someone steals the information you definitely know it's happened. If you're sending one photon at a time and one goes missing you know it," he said.

Similar technology has been used already, but the problem has been that the technicians can only approximate a photon, so they cannot be sure if there was one in the first place. If one goes missing, they don't know if it was sniffed out, or had never been there.

This approximation means that chunks of data can be swipped before anyone can be certain if they are missing.

It is all to do with dead cats that are apparently alive at the same time. More here. µ