The quantum mechanics established at the beginning of the last century is one of the greatest scientific revolutions in human history. The first quantum revolution spawned with quantum mechanics brought about the invention of major technologies such as atomic energy, semiconductors, lasers, nuclear magnetic resonance, superconductivity, and global satellite positioning systems, which greatly changed the way of life and social outlook. With the deepening of experimental research on fundamental problems of quantum mechanics such as quantum superposition and quantum entanglement, physicists have developed ground-breaking technologies for coherent manipulation of quantum systems. This consequently leads to the emerging quantum information sciences including quantum communication, quantum computation and quantum metrology. While quantum communication can ensure secure information exchange, quantum computation can greatly enhance the computing power, and quantum metrology can greatly enhance the precision of measurements. The rapid development of quantum information science marked the rise of the second quantum revolution.

In the field of quantum communication, through the successful implementation of the “Micius” quantum scientific experimental satellite and the long-distance optical fiber quantum secure communication backbone network “Beijing-Shanghai trunk line”, the first world ground-space integrated large-scale quantum communication network has been constructed. In the field of quantum computation, the optical quantum computing prototype “Jiuzhang” of 76 photons has recently been realized. According to the known optimal classical algorithm, “Jiuzhang” processes the Gaussian Bose sampling problem 100 trillion times faster than the current fastest supercomputer “Fugaku”, which marks that China has successfully achieved the milestone of “supremacy in quantum computing”.

上世紀初建立的量子力學是人類歷史上最偉大的科學革命之一。隨著量子力學的建立而催生的第一次量子革命，帶來了原子能、半導體、激光、核磁共振、超導和全球衛星定位系統等重大技術的發明，從根本上改變了人類的生活方式和社會面貌。隨著對量子疊加、量子糾纏等量子力學基本問題實驗研究的深入，自上世紀九十年代以來，量子調控技術的巨大進步使得人們可以對光子、原子等微觀粒子進行主動的精確操縱，從而誕生了量子信息科學。量子信息科學包括量子通信、量子計算、量子精密測量等方向，可以在保障信息安全、提高運算速度、提升測量精度等方面突破經典技術的瓶頸。量子信息科學的迅猛發展標誌著第二次量子革命的興起。

在量子通信領域，通過“墨子號”量子科學實驗衛星和遠距離光纖量子保密通信骨幹網“京滬幹線”的成功實施，中國構建了首個天地一體的廣域量子通信網絡雛形。在量子計算領域，近期實現了76個光子的量子計算原型機“九章”。根據現有最優的經典算法，“九章”處理高斯玻色取樣問題的速度比目前最快的超級計算機“富嶽”快100萬億倍，標誌著中國成功達到了“量子計算優越性”的里程碑。