There is widespread agreement across academia, industry and policymaking that the pace of development in quantum technologies (QTs) has accelerated in recent years. This is largely due to significant policy interest around the globe, as quantum is now considered to be an important component of the future economy. The discovery of Shor’s algorithm, which would enable a cryptographically relevant quantum computer to breach current internet security protocols, led to an international rise in interest in quantum computing, and concomitant support for other QTs. In the wake of this policy attention has come investment and facilitation, with the UK’s commitment reaching £2.5 billion over the next decade (in addition to the £1 billion of previous investment). Other countries have also allocated significant sums to research and development.

What are these quantum technologies?

The 20th century saw quantum-based technologies such as MRI scanners and fibre-optic cable, but the next phase — quantum 2.0 — may represent a groundbreaking increase in capabilities. QTs fall into broad domains: sensing and timing, imaging, communications, and computing, all of which could transform current capabilities.

  • Quantum computation: built around the development of novel quantum ‘bits’ —these may deliver not just faster, more powerful, or more efficient computers, but computers that afford different types of computation. They are predicted to tackle challenges that are known to be NP-hard for a classical computer, such as modelling new molecules and materials, the ‘travelling salesman’ problem, and large number factoring. Although robust large scale quantum computers are still considered to be some distance off (estimates vary from three to 10 years), there is a growing body of work on obtaining useful results from current devices, while companies such as IBM and AWS have provided access to their models to support experimentation. It is considered possible that there may not be one single best architecture for a quantum computer but that different physical qubits may offer different variants of capability.
  • Quantum sensing: hugely improves the accuracy of measurement in the physical world using atomic properties — this has applications in multiple domains including navigation (allowing for more accurate and reliable geolocation), healthcare (improving the accuracy and robustness of medical devices), and detection (for example to map pipes and track leaks). Quantum sensing works by detecting changes in motion, and electrical and magnetic fields — hence devices that use quantum sensing are in some ways more robust than conventional systems as they are not susceptible to signal jamming or other electromagnetic interference. Quantum timing is included within this set of technologies, as it utilises the measurement of atoms to provide a timing signal with far greater accuracy than is possible with non-quantum devices.
  • Quantum imaging: related to quantum sensing, quantum imaging can provide resolutions beyond classical optics and can also provide imagery much more efficiently (using less data, or less power). The utilisation of quantum mechanical properties also provides affordances for quantum imaging such as seeing through smoke and foliage, and around corners.
  • Quantum communications: centred on the development of completely secure communications networks, and potentially in the future could provide the basis for a ‘quantum internet’ that would operate in tandem with current technologies to provide communications that cannot be hacked or surveilled. The applications for this are clear, but this technology may also be linked together with networks of quantum computers to provide ‘blind’ quantum computing — using remote quantum computers over a secure network to perform computation in an entirely secure manner.

Given that these capabilities may collectively redefine numerous sectors of any country’s economy, the increased attention and investment across policy and commercial domains is straightforward to understand. The 2023 Quantum Technology Monitor from McKinsey reported that the global quantum computing market alone was predicted to reach £70 billion by 2040.