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arXiv:1810.02067 · Physical Review Applied

Characterizing High-Quality High-Dimensional Quantum Key Distribution by State Mapping Between Different Degrees of Freedom

Fang-Xiang Wang, Wei Chen, Zhen-Qiang Yin, Shuang Wang, Guang-Can Guo, Zheng-Fu Han

Published Feb 27, 2019• 39 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In quantum secure communication, using high-dimensional (HD) resources is an important approach to increasing the secure key rate, especially in quantum key distribution (QKD). However, high-dimensional quantum key distribution (HDQKD) has remained far from practical applications, due to the technical difficulties in HD state preparation, transmission, and measurement. This study solves the first two issues by realizing a state-mapping approach between different degrees of freedom of a photon: orbital angular momentum and spin. This noninterferometric state-mapping approach offers immediate impact on practical HDQKD systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevapplied.11.024070

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In quantum secure communication, using high-dimensional (HD) resources is an important approach to increasing the secure key rate, especially in quantum key distribution (QKD). However, high-dimensional quantum key distribution (HDQKD) has remained far from practical applications, due to the technical difficulties in HD state preparation, transmission, and measurement. This study solves the first two issues by realizing a state-mapping approach between different degrees of freedom of a photon: orbital angular momentum and spin. This noninterferometric state-mapping approach offers immediate impact on practical HDQKD systems.
High-dimensional quantum key distribution (HD-QKD) possesses a higher noise-tolerance ability and secure key rate. In the work presented here, by developing a mapping method for multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs), we propose and implement a HD-QKD system with a quantum bit error rate as low as 0.57%. Our HD-QKD system can stably achieve high secure key rates and is composable, allowing one to build HD quantum networks compatible with multiple DOFs. The results indicate that the proposed scheme could bridge HD and two-dimensional terminals encoded in different DOFs and could support large-scale deployment of quantum networks with high performance. Our work significantly enhances the performance of HD-QKD and strengthens the practical applications of large-scale quantum networks in a hybrid way.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols most often use two conjugate bases in order to verify the security of the quantum channel. In the majority of protocols, these bases are mutually unbiased to one another, which is to say they are formed from balanced superpositions of the entire set of states in the opposing basis. Here, we introduce a high-dimensional QKD protocol using qubit-like states, referred to as Fourier-qubits (or F-qubits). In our scheme, each F-qubit is a superposition of only two computational basis states with a relative phase that can take d distinct values, where d is the dimension of the computational basis. This non-mutually-unbiased approach allows us to bound the information leaked to an eavesdropper, maintaining security in high-dimensional quantum systems despite the states’ seemingly two-dimensional nature. By simplifying state preparation and measurement, our protocol offers a practical alternative for secure high-dimensional quantum communications. We experimentally demonstrate this protocol for a noisy high-dimensional QKD channel using the orbital angular momentum degree of freedom of light and discuss the potential benefits for encoding in other degrees of freedom. High dimensional quantum key distribution (QKD) systems will allow for higher key generation rate, but with added complexity for creating and detecting high dimensional quantum states. The authors demonstrate a QKD protocol using “qubit-like” qudit states, “F-qubits”, with simpler generation and detection, maintaining the benefits of high dimensional QKD protocols.
High-dimensional quantum key distribution (HD-QKD) enhances information efficiency and noise tolerance by encoding data in large Hilbert spaces. The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light provides a scalable basis for such encoding and supports high-dimensional photonic communication. Practical OAM-based implementations remain constrained by challenges in state generation, transmission, and detection. This survey offers a consolidated overview of OAM-encoded HD-QKD, outlining fundamental principles, representative experiments, and system-level limitations. Recent progress in hybrid encodings, mode sorting, adaptive optics, and TF, CV, MDI, and DI frameworks is summarized with emphasis on practical feasibility.
High-dimensional quantum key distribution (HD-QKD) provides notable advantages over qubit-based QKD, including higher key rates and greater noise resilience. Leveraging the orbital angular momentum states of structured photons to encode information has become a prominent method for implementing HD-QKD. However, practical challenges such as state-dependent diffraction, limited receiving aperture, and atmospheric turbulence impose constraints on the attainable performance and encoding dimension of QKD in free-space links. In this work, we address these challenges with focused, structured photons. Numerical simulations indicate that this method markedly enhances transmission efficiency and improves the robustness against turbulence, resulting in higher key rates and extended transmission distances in free-space HD-QKD. Additionally, focused, structured photons allow us to implement higher-dimensional QKD and enable QKD systems to achieve superior performance with smaller receiving apertures in a turbulent free-space link. This makes our approach particularly advantageous for applications of unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite platforms. Our work contributes to exploring the robust QKD schemes employing structured photons and may promote its application in quantum networks.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) guarantees the security of communication with quantum physics. Most of widely adopted QKD protocols currently encode the key information with binary signal format---qubit, such as the polarization states. Therefore the transmitted information efficiency of the quantum key is intrinsically upper bounded by 1 bit per photon. High dimensional quantum system is a potential candidate for increasing the capacity of single photon. However, due to the difficulty in manipulating and measuring high dimensional quantum systems, the experimental high dimensional QKD is still at its infancy. Here we propose a sort of practical high-speed high dimensional QKD using partial mutual unbiased basis (PMUB) of photon's orbital angular momentum (OAM). Different from the previous OAM encoding, the high dimensional Hilbert space we used is expanded by the OAM states with same mode order, which can be extended to considerably high dimensions and implemented under current state of the art. Because all the OAM states are in the same mode order, the coherence will be well kept after long-distance propagation, and the detection can be achieved by using passive linear optical elements with very high speed. We show that our protocol has high key generation rate and analyze the anti-noise ability under atmospheric turbulence. Furthermore, the security of our protocol based on PMUB is rigorously proved. Our protocol paves a brand new way for the application of photon's OAM in high dimensional QKD field, which can be a breakthrough for high efficiency quantum communications.