John Rarity

John G. Rarity is Professor of optical communication systems in the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol, a post he has held since 1 January 2003. He is an international expert on quantum optics, quantum cryptography and quantum communication using single photons and entanglement. Professor Rarity is a member of the Quantum Computation and Information group at the University of Bristol.

Research

Prior to moving to the University of Bristol in 2001, Rarity worked as a physicist at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) arm of the UK Ministry of Defence.

Notable early achievements while at DERA included demonstrations of quantum interference and non-locality over large distances, demonstrating a violation of Bell's Inequality over 4km of optical fibre in 1994. These experiments were followed by work in quantum cryptography, resulting in his team at DERA setting a world record of 1.9 km range for free space secure quantum cryptography. A collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich in 2002 successfully demonstrated an open air quantum cryptography experiment over a distance of 23.4km.

Since moving to the University of Bristol, Professor Rarity has built up a substantial group working in experimental quantum optics. One project which has received substantial publicity recently in collaboration with the Quantum Information Processing group at HP Labs is developing affordable quantum key distribution systems . The scheme reduces the cost by using pulsed LEDs rather than lasers for the source of transmitted qubits.

In 2007 Professor Rarity has also collaborated in a demonstration of quantum key distribution using free space optical communications over 144 km between the islands of Tenerife and La Palma.

Bibliography

Books

• NATO Scientific Affairs Division (August 31 1996). C. Cargese, C. Weisbuch and John Rarity (Editors) (ed.). Microcavities and Photonic Bandgaps: Physics and Applications. Springer. ISBN 0-7923-4170-8. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)

Highly cited papers

• Artur K. Ekert, John G. Rarity, Paul R. Tapster, G. Massimo Palma (1992). "Practical quantum cryptography based on two-photon interferometry". Physical Review Letters. 69: 1293–1295. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.69.1293.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• J. G. Rarity and P. R. Tapster (1990). "Experimental violation of Bell's inequality based on phase and momentum". Physical Review Letters. 64: 2495–2498. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.64.2495.

External links

• Staff page at Bristol University
• Bristol University research page
• Google Scholar list of papers
• List of recent publications, as given by the QCI UoB