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arXiv:2303.15795 · Physical Review Letters

Experimental Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution over 1000 km Fiber Distance

Yang Liu, Weijun Zhang, Cong Jiang, Jiu-Peng Chen, Chi Zhang, Wen-Xin Pan, Di Ma, Hao Dong, Jia-Min Xiong, Chengjun Zhang, Hao Li, Rui-Chun Wang, Jun Wu, Teng‐Yun Chen, Lixing You, Xiang‐Bin Wang, Qiang Zhang, Jian-Wei Pan

Published May 25, 2023• 391 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum key distribution (QKD) aims to generate secure private keys shared by two remote parties. With its security being protected by principles of quantum mechanics, some technology challenges remain towards practical application of QKD. The major one is the distance limit, which is caused by the fact that a quantum signal cannot be amplified while the channel loss is exponential with the distance for photon transmission in optical fiber. Here using the 3-intensity sending-or-not-sending protocol with the actively-odd-parity-pairing method, we demonstrate a fiber-based twin-field QKD over 1002 km. In our experiment, we developed a dual-band phase estimation and ultra-low noise superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors to suppress the system noise to around 0.02 Hz. The secure key rate is 9.53×10^{-12} per pulse through 1002 km fiber in the asymptotic regime, and 8.75×10^{-12} per pulse at 952 km considering the finite size effect. Our work constitutes a critical step towards the future large-scale quantum network.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.130.210801

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Quantum key distribution (QKD) aims to generate secure private keys shared by two remote parties. With its security being protected by principles of quantum mechanics, some technology challenges remain towards practical application of QKD. The major one is the distance limit, which is caused by the fact that a quantum signal cannot be amplified while the channel loss is exponential with the distance for photon transmission in optical fiber. Here using the 3-intensity sending-or-not-sending protocol with the actively-odd-parity-pairing method, we demonstrate a fiber-based twin-field QKD over 1002 km. In our experiment, we developed a dual-band phase estimation and ultra-low noise superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors to suppress the system noise to around 0.02 Hz. The secure key rate is 9.53×10^{-12} per pulse through 1002 km fiber in the asymptotic regime, and 8.75×10^{-12} per pulse at 952 km considering the finite size effect. Our work constitutes a critical step towards the future large-scale quantum network.
Abstract Quantum key distribution (QKD) holds the potential to establish secure keys over long distances. The distance of point-to-point QKD secure key distribution is primarily impeded by the transmission loss inherent to the channel. In the quest to realize a large-scale quantum network, increasing the QKD distance under current technology is of great research interest. Here we adopt the 3-intensity sending-or-not-sending twin-field QKD (TF-QKD) protocol with the actively-odd-parity-pairing method. The experiment demonstrates the feasibility of secure QKD over a 1002 km fibre channel considering the finite size effect. The secure key rate is 3.11×10−123.11\times 10^{-12}3.11×10−12 3.11 × 10 − 12 per pulse at this distance. Furthermore, by optimizing parameters for shorter fiber distances, we conducted performance tests on key distribution for fiber lengths ranging from 202 km to 505 km. Notably, the secure key rate for the 202 km, the normal distance between major cities, reached 111.74 kbps.
Twin-field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) promises high key rates over long distances to beat the rate-distance limit. Here, applying the sending-or-not-sending TF QKD protocol, we experimentally demonstrate a secure key distribution that breaks the absolute key-rate limit of repeaterless QKD over a 509-km-long ultralow loss optical fiber. Two independent lasers are used as sources with remote-frequency-locking technique over the 500-km fiber distance. Practical optical fibers are used as the optical path with appropriate noise filtering; and finite-key effects are considered in the key-rate analysis. The secure key rate obtained at 509 km is more than seven times higher than the relative bound of repeaterless QKD for the same detection loss. The achieved secure key rate is also higher than that of a traditional QKD protocol running with a perfect repeaterless QKD device, even for an infinite number of sent pulses. Our result shows that the protocol and technologies applied in this experiment enable TF QKD to achieve a high secure key rate over a long distribution distance, and is therefore practically useful for field implementation of intercity QKD.
Channel loss seems to be the most severe limitation on the practical application of long distance quantum key distribution. The idea of twin-field quantum key distribution can improve the key rate from the linear scale of channel loss in the traditional decoy-state method to the square root scale of the channel transmittance. However, the technical demands are rather tough because they require single photon level interference of two remote independent lasers. Here, we adopt the technology developed in the frequency and time transfer to lock two independent laser wavelengths and utilize additional phase reference light to estimate and compensate the fiber fluctuation. Further, with a single photon detector with a high detection rate, we demonstrate twin field quantum key distribution through the sending-or-not-sending protocol with a realistic phase drift over 300 km optical fiber spools. We calculate the secure key rates with the finite size effect. The secure key rate at 300 km (1.96×10^{-6}) is higher than that of the repeaterless secret key capacity (8.64×10^{-7}).
Quantum key distribution endows people with information-theoretical security in communications. Twin-field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) has attracted considerable attention because of its outstanding key rates over long distances. Recently, several demonstrations of TF-QKD have been realized. Nevertheless, those experiments are implemented in the laboratory, and therefore a critical question remains about whether the TF-QKD is feasible in real-world circumstances. Here, by adopting the sending-or-not-sending twin-field QKD (SNS-TF-QKD) with the method of actively odd parity pairing (AOPP), we demonstrate a field-test QKD over 428 km of deployed commercial fiber and two users are physically separated by about 300 km in a straight line. To this end, we explicitly measure the relevant properties of the deployed fiber and develop a carefully designed system with high stability. The secure key rate we achieved breaks the absolute key rate limit of repeaterless QKD. The result provides a new distance record for the field test of both TF-QKD and all types of fiber-based QKD systems. Our work bridges the gap of QKD between laboratory demonstrations and practical applications and paves the way for an intercity QKD network with measurement-device-independent security.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) offers information-theoretic security, making it a cornerstone of future cryptographic infrastructures in the era of quantum computing. However, long-distance deployment of conventional QKD protocols is limited by channel losses, detector noise, and the fundamental repeaterless Pirandola-Laurenza-Ottaviani-Banchi (PLOB) bound. To address these challenges, this paper investigates the Twin-Field QKD (TF-QKD) protocol, which enables secure key exchange over long-haul optical fibers by exploiting single-photon interference at an untrusted intermediate node. An elaborate system model is provided with optical channel impairments, imperfections of detector and phase stabilization conditions. Finite-key analysis, error correction as well as privacy amplification are placed and made together in order to increase robustness of protocol against practical attacks. The simulation data show that TFQKD can reach secure key rates of over 500 km and is out of reach of decoy-state QKD but nearly close to fundamental limits. These results demonstrate that TF-QKD has the potential to practicalize quantumsecure communication at large scale and in a costeffective way, which can constitute a sub-unit of the future quantum internet.
Twin-field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) offers a promising approach to long-distance QKD networks due to its superior performance over large channel losses. Due to specialized hardware requirements, nearly all long-distance TFQKD demonstrations have only two users exchanging keys, rather than a network with three or more users. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate a proof-of-principle three-user-pair Sagnac TFQKD network spanning 127-km using single-photon avalanche detectors without any active phase stabilization or postcompensation. We implement efficient procedures for maintaining polarization stability and circumventing Rayleigh backscattering noise to achieve a stable Sagnac interference visibility of 93±193\pm193±1% over one hour. A secure key rate of 1.398×10−51.398\times10^{-5}1.398×10−5 bits per pulse is achieved over an asymmetric communication channel with 102-km fiber and 45-dB overall loss. To our knowledge, this is the first TFQKD network without active phase stabilization or postcompensation achieved over long fibers. Our results represent a highly practical and cost-effective approach to long-distance QKD networks.