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Computer and encryption breakthroughs aid DHS cybersecurity mission

- DHS Fellow merging sciences to enhance computing capabilities

(Feb. 13, 2007)

The merging of two sciences has enabled DHS Fellow Danny Rogers to aid research breakthroughs critical to DHS' cybersecurity mission. By linking quantum physics with information theory, Rogers’ work in a new discipline, “quantum information science,” can exponentially increase computing capabilities and lead to new ways to encrypt top secret communications.

“Quantum information science is an emerging field that lets us accomplish feats considered impossible using today's information technology,” explains Rogers. “By exploiting the quantum mechanical properties of single photons, electrons or nuclei, we are able to communicate using unbreakable codes or perform calculations considered impossible even on today's supercomputers.”

Rogers’ research last year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory earned him top honors in Materials Science at the Los Alamos Student and Post-doc Research Symposium.

“My research at Los Alamos involved an experiment to investigate the interaction between quantum bits fabricated from implanting individual phosphorous nuclei in a silicon wafer. This research effort holds promise as a way to manufacture a practical quantum computer using traditional semiconductor fabrication techniques,” says Rogers.

As a graduate fellow, Rogers normally performs his research in the Quantum Cryptography testbed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he is investigating new, more practical methods to generate entanglement for quantum cryptography systems. His group at NIST specializes in building high-speed quantum key distribution systems able to perform unbreakable encryption of broadband signals.

Rogers is in the third year of a Doctorate in Chemical Physics at the University of Maryland and looks to graduate in 2008. He is an avid rock climber, runner and jazz musician. He also volunteers at his local rescue squad.