Quantum secure direct communications (QSDC) can directly transmit secret messages through a quantum channel without keys. The imperfect photon source is a major obstacle for QSDC's practical implementation. The unwanted vacuum state and multiphoton components emitted from imperfect photon source largely reduce QSDC's secrecy message capacity and even threaten its security. In the paper, we propose a high-efficient passive decoy-state QSDC protocol with the heralded single-photon source (HSPS). We adopt a spontaneous parametric down-conversion source to emit entangled photon pairs in two spatial modes. By detecting the photons in one of the two correlated spatial modes, we can infer the photon-number distribution of the other spatial mode. Meanwhile, our protocol allows a simple passive preparation of the signal states and decoy state. The HSPS can effectively reduce the probability of vacuum state and increase QSDC's secrecy message capacity. Meanwhile, the passive decoy-state method can simplify the experimental operations and enhance QSDC's robustness against the third-party side-channel attacks. Under the communication distance of 10 km, the secrecy message capacity of our QSDC protocol can achieve 81.85 times with average photon number of 0.1 and 12.79 times with average photon number of 0.01 of that in the original single-photon-based QSDC protocol without the HSPS. Our QSDC protocol has longer maximal communication distance about 17.975 km with average photon number of 0.01. Our work serves as a major step toward the further development of practical passive decoy-state QSDC systems.
Quantum secure direct communications (QSDC) can directly transmit secret messages through a quantum channel without keys. The imperfect photon source is a major obstacle for QSDC's practical implementation. The unwanted vacuum state and multiphoton components emitted from imperfect photon source largely reduce QSDC's secrecy message capacity and even threaten its security. In the paper, we propose a high-efficient passive decoy-state QSDC protocol with the heralded single-photon source (HSPS). We adopt a spontaneous parametric down-conversion source to emit entangled photon pairs in two spatial modes. By detecting the photons in one of the two correlated spatial modes, we can infer the photon-number distribution of the other spatial mode. Meanwhile, our protocol allows a simple passive preparation of the signal states and decoy state. The HSPS can effectively reduce the probability of vacuum state and increase QSDC's secrecy message capacity. Meanwhile, the passive decoy-state method can simplify the experimental operations and enhance QSDC's robustness against the third-party side-channel attacks. Under the communication distance of 10 km, the secrecy message capacity of our QSDC protocol can achieve 81.85 times with average photon number of 0.1 and 12.79 times with average photon number of 0.01 of that in the original single-photon-based QSDC protocol without the HSPS. Our QSDC protocol has longer maximal communication distance about 17.975 km with average photon number of 0.01. Our work serves as a major step toward the further development of practical passive decoy-state QSDC systems.
Quantum secure direct communications (QSDC) can directly transmit secret messages through a quantum channel without keys. The imperfect photon source is a major obstacle for QSDC's practical implementation. The unwanted vacuum state and multiphoton components emitted from imperfect photon source largely reduce QSDC's secrecy message capacity and even threaten its security. In the paper, we propose a high-efficient passive decoy-state QSDC protocol with the heralded single-photon source (HSPS). We adopt a spontaneous parametric down-conversion source to emit entangled photon pairs in two spatial modes. By detecting the photons in one of the two correlated spatial modes, we can infer the photon-number distribution of the other spatial mode. Meanwhile, our protocol allows a simple passive preparation of the signal states and decoy state. The HSPS can effectively reduce the probability of vacuum state and increase QSDC's secrecy message capacity. Meanwhile, the passive decoy-state method can simplify the experimental operations and enhance QSDC's robustness against the third-party side-channel attacks. Under the communication distance of 10 km, the secrecy message capacity of our QSDC protocol can achieve 81.85 times with average photon number of 0.1 and 12.79 times with average photon number of 0.01 of that in the original single-photon-based QSDC protocol without the HSPS. Our QSDC protocol has longer maximal communication distance about 17.975 km with average photon number of 0.01. Our work serves as a major step toward the further development of practical passive decoy-state QSDC systems.
The decoy state method is an effective approach for addressing the source imperfections in quantum communication. By employing pulses of varying intensities to estimate error rates and yields, this method requires active modulation of the source intensity. However, the active modulation operation may introduce side-channel vulnerabilities, potentially allowing an eavesdropper to execute Trojan horse attacks. The passive decoy state method circumvents this issue by eliminating the need for active intensity modulation. In this paper, we propose a passive decoy state quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) protocol that generates weak coherent states with random intensities using two phase-randomized coherent pulses. Leveraging linear optics, our protocol facilitates straightforward implementation and is robust against eavesdropping side-channel attacks targeting source intensity modulators.We establish a system model for the protocol and derive its secrecy message capacity. Additionally, we optimize the input intensities of the protocol and obtain the maximum secrecy message capacity for each channel attenuation value. Compared with the previous protocol, our protocol exhibits an approximately 25% enhancement in the secrecy message transmission rate within a channel attenuation range of 6 dB. We also compare the performance of the three-decoy-state protocol with that of the infinite-decoy-state protocol. Within a channel attenuation range of 6.8 dB, the secrecy message capacity of the three-decoy-state protocol achieves approximately 94%-96% of that of the infinite-decoy-state.
In practical quantum communication, imperfect devices may introduce side channels, creating opportunities for eavesdroppers. Especially on the source side, the side channels created by active modulation may compromise the security of the protocol. We proposes a passively-sourced quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) protocol based on fully passive source. By passively modulating both the quantum state and the intensity of the decoy state, we can avoid active modulation operations at the source, thereby enhancing the robustness of QSDC against side-channel attacks. We developed a system model and conducted parameter optimization to obtain the maximum secrecy message transmission rate achievable by the protocol for each channel attenuation. At a channel attenuation of 2, 4, 6 dB (corresponding to a communication distance of 5, 10, 15 km), the secrecy message transmission rates are 5.76 * 10^-5, 9.92 * 10^-6, and 4.99 * 10^-7 bit/sec. And its maximum communication distance is about 16.875 km, which is about 94.4% of that of actively modulated QSDC.
Abstract Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) promises unconditional security for direct information transmission without pre-shared keys. However, practical implementations using weak coherent sources face critical challenges from device imperfections, such as emitting vacuum states and multiphoton states. Here, we introduce a heralded QSDC protocol leveraging squeezed-state superposition in a cross-Kerr nonlinear medium, where single-mode squeezed states interfere with coherent states to generate superposition states via post-measurement selection. We have considered three detector models to analyze the heralding performance of light sources under different conditions, including the ideal photon number detector, the practical photon number detector, and the practical photon detector. Our proposed protocol dramatically reduces the vacuum state ratio compared to weak coherent pulse sources, and the multiphoton ratio is still maintained at a low level, significantly enhancing the security information capacity and the maximum secure communication distance. We perform numerical simulations and compare our protocol with the optical single-photon-based QSDC protocol. At 7.5 km with an average photon number of 0.01, the security information capacity improves by 13.42 times, 12.20 times, and 8.64 times for three detector models. Extending to 17.5 km, these gains will be to 277.59 times, 251.58 times, and 172.91 times. Our work provides a robust framework for high-capacity, long-distance, secure quantum communication systems. PACS numbers: 03.67.Pp, 03.67.Hk, 03.65.Ud
Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) enables the message sender to directly transmit messages to the message receiver through quantum channel without keys. Environmental noise is the main obstacle for QSDC's practicality. For enhancing QSDC's noise robustness, we introduce the quantum error correction (QEC) code into QSDC and propose the QSDC protocol based on the redundancy code. This QSDC protocol correlates atomic state with the electron–photon entangled pairs and transmits photons in quantum channels for two rounds. The parties can construct the remote atomic logical entanglement channel and decode messages with the heralded photonic Bell state measurement (BSM) and single electron measurement. This QSDC protocol is unconditionally secure in theory and has some advantages. First, benefiting from the heralded photonic BSM, it can eliminate the influence from photon transmission loss and has the potential to realize long-distance secure message transmission. Second, taking use of the error correction function of the repetition code, the error rate caused by the decoherence during the second round of photon transmission can be reduced, which can reduce the message error and increase the secret message capacity. Third, the whole protocol is feasible under current experimental condition. Our QSDC protocol can be extended to use other stronger QEC code. It provides a promising method to promote QSDC's practicality in the future.
Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) can directly transmit secrete messages through a quantum channel. Device-independent (DI) QSDC can guarantee the communication security relying only on the observation of the Bell-inequality violation, but not on any detailed description or trust of the inner workings of users' devices. In the paper, we propose a DI-QSDC protocol with practical highly efficient single-photon sources. The communication parties construct the entanglement channel from single photons by adopting the heralded architecture, which makes the message-leakage rate independent of the photon-transmission loss. The secure communication distance and the practical communication efficiency of the current DI-QSDC protocol are about 6 times and 600 times of those in the original DI-QSDC protocol. Combining with the entanglement purification, the parties can construct the nearly perfect entanglement channel and completely eliminate the message leakage. This DI-QSDC protocol may have useful applications in the future quantum communication field.