May 2 2005
New technology that will make it impossible to eavesdrop on communications or steal information has been developed by University of Melbourne researchers — and it all depends on growing diamonds in a microwave oven.
The new technology could represent a boom for financial institutions, security agencies, governments and individuals who need to communicate sensitive information with total security, says Dr James Rabeau from the University’s School of Physics.
Most information these days is sent via fibre optics. Sending such information from A to B with absolute, uncrackable security depends on the unique properties of light, says Dr Rabeau, who was a finalist in this year’s Fresh Innovators.
Light beams are made up of billions of particles, known as photons. At present, it is possible to divert or tap off some of the photons from a light beam and reconstruct the information they represent.
But if the information were carried by a stream of single photons, then removing any would both corrupt the information and break the communication thread.
The eavesdropper would end up with no useful information, and the sender and receiver would instantly know they were being bugged.
“The biggest limitation confronting this technology has been the lack of a cheap and reliable light source with the adaptations necessary to produce the single-photon light beam,” Dr Rabeau says. And that’s the problem his team has solved.
The patented invention involves souped up microwave oven technology to grow tiny diamond particles onto the tips of optical fibres.
The result is a device which generates the critical single light particles.
Already two companies are making and selling the equipment necessary for this type of cryptography, but the light sources they use are inadequate. The diamond device invented in Melbourne is the front runner to replace the existing sources.
Rabeau and his colleagues at the University of Melbourne’s School of Physics recently received a $3.3 million innovation grant from the Victorian government to develop a prototype device and commercialise the technology. (www.innovation.vic.gov.au)
Rabeau’s innovation has won him a place at Fresh Innovators—a national initiative to bring the work of 16 early-career inventers to public attention. After training in Sydney, the Innovators are talking to the media, schools and business about their ideas. One of the 16 will win a study tour to the UK courtesy of the British Council Australia.
http://www.unimelb.edu.au/