Quantum computing, phase estimation and applications

In this thesis, attention is paid to small experimental testbed applications with respect to the quantum phase estimation algorithm, the core approach for finding energy eigenvalues. An iterative scheme for quantum phase estimation (IPEA) is derived from the Kitaev phase estimation, a study of robustness of the IPEA utilized as a few-qubit testbed application is performed, and an improved protocol for phase reference alignment is presented. Additionally, a short overview of quantum cryptography is given, with a particular focus on quantum steganography and authentication.