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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Phys.

Sec. Quantum Engineering and Technology

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2025.1582819

Constructing Resource-Efficient Quantum Circuits for AES

Provisionally accepted
Liao-Liang Jiang Liao-Liang Jiang 1Bin-Bin Cai Bin-Bin Cai 2Fei Gao Fei Gao 1*Su-Juan Qin Su-Juan Qin 1Zheng-Ping Jin Zheng-Ping Jin 1Qiao-Yan Wen Qiao-Yan Wen 1
  • 1 Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing, China
  • 2 Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    An efficient quantum implementation of AES is crucial for reducing the complexity of implementing exhaustive key search through Grover's algorithm. In this paper, we study how to construct resource-efficient quantum circuits for AES. We consider the product of T-gates depth and width (TDW), as well as the product of full depth and width (FDW) as optimization targets. We propose a generic method, called CCQC technique, to construct quantum circuits for nonlinear components with reduced TDW and FDW. Using this, we construct quantum circuit for AES S-box.Compared with recent work presented at ASIACRYPT 2023, our S-box quantum circuit achieves reductions of 2.3% in TDW and 45.2% in FDW. Additionally, we propose a new key schedule strategy to reduce the full depth of AES quantum circuit. Finally, the trade-offs between T-gates depth and width, the parallel numbers of S-box and TDW are analyzed.

    Keywords: Grover algorithm, AES, S-box, quantum circuit, Quantum resources optimization

    Received: 25 Feb 2025; Accepted: 07 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Jiang, Cai, Gao, Qin, Jin and Wen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Fei Gao, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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