Physicists at the Moscow-based Russian Quantum Center and their partners from the Lebedev Institute of Physics appear to have learned to use quantum computing ions for data encryption with much greater efficiency.

The scientists have reportedly made use of the ion’s four energy levels, turning it into what’s known in quantum mechanics as ququarts – unlike old methods that have only helped get a double-level system called qubits. The researchers believe their approach will enable with just two ions the same computing capacity that has thus far been only possible with four.

Qubits in any of their implementation can only exist in their two extreme states: 0 and 1; or in a state of their superposition. Qubit-based computing takes advantage of just a small fraction of the entire energy level system in quantum mechanics.

Scientists across the world have been trying to find a solution in which all or at least few more energy levels can be utilized – which means the creation of qudits that are systems with more than two levels.

The Moscow-based group led by Nikolai Kolachevskiy has apparently hit the target as it experimented with four level driven computing. In their effort to scale up the system, the physicists have reportedly added no extra ions for computing but used more levels of the already existing particles instead.