Super-secret encryption systems, personal identification data that cannot be stolen and enhanced sensors are just a few of the applications for a quantum optical chip being developed by Warren Grice and colleagues in the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate. Their work is part of a new field of research known as quantum information, which applies the seemingly paradoxical rules of quantum physics to the world of information. "Quantum information has some unique advantages," Grice said. "For example, only those who know how it was written can read it or even observe it without corrupting it in a telltale way." Also, a quantum-based computer could quickly solve certain difficult problems like cracking mathematically based encryption systems or finding the optimum path through a complicated network by processing all possible answers at the same time. Grice envisions the quantum optical chip, which uses single photons to store quantum bits of information, enabling the development of quantum information technologies like the quantum computer. This work is funded through the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.