In high-end 21^st century communications, information travels in the form of a stream of light pulses typically traveling through fiber optic cables. Each pulse can be as faint as a single photon, the smallest possible unit (quantum) of light. The speed at which such systems can operate depends critically on how fast and how accurately detectors on the receiving end can discriminate and process those photons.

A recent Funding Announcement Opportunity (FOA) was released for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Department of Defense Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative (MURI) awards. This year’s MURI announcement has several opportunities that touch on quantum sensing, quantum communication and quantum computing.