SPIE - Education Quantum Cryptography SC1258

Quantum cryptography is a scientific and engineering field devoted to harnessing physical objects whose behavior is governed by the rules of quantum mechanics to generate and distribute keys in order to convert ordinary plain text messages into meaningless (codified) messages and vice versa. In this paradigm, safe key distribution relies on the physical properties of quantum-mechanical systems rather than on mathematical conjectures. This course presents a succinct review of key generation & distribution and its role in symmetric and assymetric cryptography protocols, followed by a concise yet complete introduction to the BB84 and E91 quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols (this section comprises the theoretical foundations and several computer simulations of both QKD protocols). We finish this course by showing some real-world applications of QKD protocols.