We experimentally demonstrate that we can detect correlated errors in a twin-field quantum key distribution (TFQKD) system by using a technique that is related to self-consistent tomography. We implement a TFQKD system based on a fiber-Sagnac loop, in which Alice and Bob encode information in the phase of weak coherent states that propagate in opposite directions around the loop. These states interfere as they exit the loop and are detected by a third party, Charlie, who reports the results of their measurements to Alice and Bob. We find that it is possible for Alice and Bob to detect correlated state-preparation and measurement errors while trusting only their own individual states, and without trusting Charlie’s measurements.
We experimentally demonstrate that we can detect correlated errors in a twin-field quantum key distribution (TFQKD) system by using a technique that is related to self-consistent tomography. We implement a TFQKD system based on a fiber-Sagnac loop, in which Alice and Bob encode information in the phase of weak coherent states that propagate in opposite directions around the loop. These states interfere as they exit the loop and are detected by a third party, Charlie, who reports the results of their measurements to Alice and Bob. We find that it is possible for Alice and Bob to detect correlated state-preparation and measurement errors while trusting only their own individual states, and without trusting Charlie’s measurements.
It is possible for two parties, Alice and Bob, to establish a secure communication link by sharing an ensemble of entangled particles, and then using these particles to generate a secret key. One way to establish that the particles are indeed entangled is to verify that they violate a Bell inequality. However, it might be the case that Bob is not trustworthy and wishes Alice to believe that their communications are secure, when in fact they are not. He can do this by managing to have prior knowledge of Alice's measurement device settings and then modifying his own settings based upon this information. In this case it is possible for shared particle states that must satisfy a Bell inequality to appear to violate this inequality, which would also make the system appear secure. When Bob modifies his measurement settings, however, he produces false correlations. Here we demonstrate experimentally that Alice can detect these false correlations, and uncover Bob's trickery, by using loop-state-preparation-and-measurement (SPAM) tomography. More generally, we demonstrate that loop SPAM tomography can detect false correlations (correlated errors) in a two-qubit system without needing to know anything about the prepared states or the measurements, other than the dimensions of the operators that describe them.
Meet Alice, Bob, and David. Establishing secure encryption keys between any two of these users is important for a long-range communication network, but with dubious Charlie also around, it becomes tricky. Twin-field quantum key distribution (TFQKD), while promising for this application, has been limited so far to two users, because of its requirement for phase stability of optical signals. In this work, the authors demonstrate a TFQKD network by connecting three users in a Sagnac fiber ring, a configuration with inherent phase stability. This experiment suggests that the Sagnac TFQKD system is an effective, practical approach to implementing a long-range secure communication network.
A Sagnac loop structure can help overcome the major difficulty in the practical implementation of a twin field quantum key distribution (TFQKD) network, namely, the need to stabilize the phase of a quantum state over many kilometers of fiber. Unfortunately, Rayleigh backscattering noise limits the signal-to-noise ratio for Sagnac systems containing long fibers and lossy photonic devices. Here, we solve this problem by sending optical pulses in long on-off bursts and using time post-selection on measurements taken with free-run single-photon avalanche detectors. We also investigate the impact of the residual phase noise uncompensated by the Sagnac structure and find that the variance of the phase noise scales as loop length to the third power, verifying an existing calculation in the literature. We measure the interference visibility in Sagnac loops of varying length without active phase stabilization and achieve > 97% visibility in 200 km ultra-low-loss fiber, which is, to our knowledge, the longest fiber Sagnac interferometer demonstrated. Our results suggest that a Sagnac system is feasible for long-distance TFQKD networks, an important step towards the practical implementation of metropolitan quantum networks.
We experimentally demonstrate that loop state-preparation-and-measurement (SPAM) tomography is capable of detecting correlated errors in a two-qubit system. We prepare photon pairs in a state that approximates a Werner state, which may or may not be entangled. By performing measurements with multiple different detector settings, we are able to detect correlated errors between two single-qubit measurements performed in different locations. No assumptions are made concerning either the state preparations or the measurements, other than that the dimensions of the states and the positive-operator-valued measures describing the detectors are known. The only other needed information is experimentally measured expectation values, which are analyzed for self-consistency. This demonstrates that loop SPAM tomography is a useful technique for detecting errors that would degrade the performance of multiple-qubit quantum information processors.
The twin-field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol and its variants are highly attractive because they can beat the well-known fundamental limit of the secret key rate for point-to-point QKD without quantum repeaters (repeaterless bound). In this Letter, we perform a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration of TFQKD based on the protocol proposed by Curty, Azuma, and Lo, which removes the need for postselection on the matching of a global phase from the original TFQKD scheme and can deliver a high secret key rate. Furthermore, we employ a Sagnac loop structure to help overcome the major difficulty in the practical implementation of TFQKD, namely, the need to stabilize the phase of the quantum state over kilometers of fiber. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, the estimated secure key rate from our experimental TFQKD data at the high loss region surpasses the repeaterless bound of QKD with current technology.
In twin-field quantum key distribution the two communicating parties, Alice and Bob, each send a weak coherent pulse to a third party stationed between them. The key bits are generated by interference between these pulses, with the results communicated to Alice and Bob. We consider optimized strategies for eavesdropping on the communication built upon state discrimination and quantum non-demolition measurements. We find that the best strategy comprises a two-step process but that even this does not compromise the security of the protocol.