Sara Congia

Quantum technologies often use light, but not just as a light bulb — rather as a carrier of information. One approach is to encode data in frequency: each 'color' of a photon can be a separate memory cell. The problem is that working with such color states requires a whole lab: a photon source, filters, modulators, detectors.

Light can act as a courier carrying secret messages. But to ensure the courier doesn't lose a single letter, you need to meet and check it very quickly. The new chip made from a thin film of lithium niobate is like a turnstile that opens and closes in billionths of a second, letting light pulses through at just the right moment.

Data on the internet travels at the speed of light through fiber optics. In classical networks, delays aren't critical, but for quantum communication, perfect synchronization is essential: particles of light with encoded information must converge at the detector in the same instant.