Transmitter-side device dependence is a longstanding yet implicit problem in quantum key distribution (QKD), in contrast to the thoroughly addressed measurement-side case. Quantum steering, which intrinsically distinguishes the roles of sender and receiver in entanglement certification, offers a natural route to lifting trust assumptions on the transmitter. Existing one-sided device-independent (1sDI) protocols primarily exploit steering as a security resource, and provoke a signaling loophole in the transmitter-receiver architecture. Here we formalize transmitter-device-independence on the basis of faithful quantum steering and propose a transmitter-device-independent (TDI) QKD protocol within 1sDI framework that closes this loophole through introducing a photon storage, thereby eliminating transmitter-side device vulnerabilities. In a proof-of-principle experiment we validate the feasibility of the TDI protocol, achieving a key-rate in the asymptotic limit of 410~bps over 27~km spool fiber. By delivering TDI security while retaining strong loss tolerance, our approach helps bridge the gap between security and practicality for real-world QKD deployments.
Transmitter-side device dependence is a longstanding yet implicit problem in quantum key distribution (QKD), in contrast to the thoroughly addressed measurement-side case. Quantum steering, which intrinsically distinguishes the roles of sender and receiver in entanglement certification, offers a natural route to lifting trust assumptions on the transmitter. Existing one-sided device-independent (1sDI) protocols primarily exploit steering as a security resource, and provoke a signaling loophole in the transmitter-receiver architecture. Here we formalize transmitter-device-independence on the basis of faithful quantum steering and propose a transmitter-device-independent (TDI) QKD protocol within 1sDI framework that closes this loophole through introducing a photon storage, thereby eliminating transmitter-side device vulnerabilities. In a proof-of-principle experiment we validate the feasibility of the TDI protocol, achieving a key-rate in the asymptotic limit of 410bps over 27km spool fiber. By delivering TDI security while retaining strong loss tolerance, our approach helps bridge the gap between security and practicality for real-world QKD deployments.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) brings the promise of communication with information-theoretic security but is limited in practice due to its susceptibility to noise, losses, and device imperfections. To address these challenges, we propose a robust high-dimensional (HD) one-sided device-independent QKD (1sDI-QKD) protocol and present a proof-of-principle experimental implementation using photons entangled in the transverse-spatial degree-of-freedom. We develop a systematic security analysis of HD 1sDI-QKD protocols, leveraging quantum steering to certify security, and evaluate achievable secret key rates for different measurement configurations and system dimensions using reverse reconciliation. Our analysis shows that increasing the dimension enhances robustness against both noise and loss. We then demonstrate the key experimental building blocks required for implementing the protocol: (a) a high-quality source of high-dimensional photonic entanglement, and (b) a fully programmable, high-dimensional multi-outcome measurement device operating in up to dimension 11. Using these components, we obtain positive key rates for all investigated dimensions under the fair-sampling assumption, with the highest key rates achieved for dimension d=7. Finally, we discuss the steps required for a practical, loophole-free implementation of 1sDI-QKD in realistic regimes of loss and noise.
One-sided device-independent quantum key distribution (1SDI-QKD) offers a practical middle ground between fully device-independent protocols and standard QKD, achieving security with detection efficiencies as low as 50.1\% on the untrusted side. However, prior analyses assumed idealized channels. This work extends the 1SDI-QKD framework to amplitude damping, dephasing, and depolarizing noise. Results reveal a clear noise hierarchy: dephasing tolerates the most noise before security is lost (pcrit≈0.50 versus 0.449 and 0.220 respectively), while depolarizing noise imposes the most stringent detection efficiency requirements, exceeding 97\% at 20\% noise where amplitude damping requires 76\%. Security is lost while substantial entanglement remains (C≈0.67--0.74), demonstrating that steering violation, not merely entanglement, determines 1SDI-QKD security. Integrating the BBPSSW purification protocol shows that it functions primarily as a range-extension mechanism: five rounds extend dephasing-limited operation from 10~km to 36~km at 90\% detection efficiency. Accounting for both the 2n pair cost and the cumulative success probability, the effective rate peaks at $ 10^{-3}$ bits per initial pair for dephasing but only $ 10^{-6}$ for amplitude damping and depolarizing noise, identifying phase noise limited links as the regime where purification is worthwhile.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) allows spatially separated parties to establish a secret key among themselves based on quantum principles. While QKD systems are being deployed worldwide, their reliance on trusted measurements makes them vulnerable. Moreover, existing protocols have largely focussed on the qubit cases, and rely on the maximally entangled state, a costly resource to generate. Here, we consider the one-sided-device-independent (1SDI) QKD protocols, where one of the measurement devices is trusted while the other is untrusted. The resource in this scenario is quantum steering, an asymmetric form of quantum nonlocality. This is inspired by a real-world scenario, where the trusted party can be considered to be a bank, or any large organisation that has sufficient resources to protect its systems and validate them, while the users are vulnerable to attacks. We then demonstrate that a secure key can be obtained using any pure bipartite entangled state in this setup. Considering realistic detectors and sources based on current technology, we demonstrate that even states that are almost separable can be used to extract a secure key. Moreover, for every pure entangled bipartite state, we find the critical detection efficiencies and visibility to obtain a secure key.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) enables two legitimate parties to share a secret key even in the presence of an eavesdropper. The unconditional security of QKD is based on the fundamental laws of quantum physics. Original security proofs of QKD are based on a few assumptions, e.g., perfect single photon sources and perfect single-photon detectors. However, practical implementations of QKD systems do not fully comply with such assumptions due to technical limitations. The gap between theory and implementations leads to security loopholes in most QKD systems, and several attacks have been launched on sophisticated QKD systems. Particularly, the detectors have been found to be the most vulnerable part of QKD. Much effort has been put to build side-channel-free QKD systems. Solutions such as security patches and device-independent QKD have been proposed. However, the former are normally ad-hoc, and cannot close unidentified loopholes. The latter, while having the advantages of removing all assumptions on devices, is impractical to implement today. Measurement-device-independent QKD (MDI-QKD) turns out to be a promising solution to the security problem of QKD. In MDI-QKD, all security loopholes, including those yet-to-be discovered, have been removed from the detectors, the most critical part in QKD. In this thesis, we investigate issues related to the practical implementation and security of MDI-QKD. We first present a demonstration of polarization-encoding MDI-QKD. Taking finite key effect into account, we achieve a secret key rate of 0.005 bit per second (bps) over 10 km spooled telecom fiber, and a 1600-bit key is distributed. This work, together with other demonstrations, shows the practicality of MDI-QKD. Next we investigate a critical assumption of MDI-QKD: perfect state preparation. We apply the loss-tolerant QKD protocol and adapt it to MDI-QKD to quantify information leakage due to imperfect state preparation. We then present an experimental demonstration of MDI-QKD over 10 km and 40 km of spooled fiber, which for the first time considers the impact of inaccurate polarization state preparation on the secret key rate. This would not have been possible under previous security proofs, given the same amount of state preparation flaws.
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) can remove all detection side-channels from quantum communication systems. The security proofs require, however, that certain assumptions on the sources are satisfied. This includes, for instance, the requirement that there is no information leakage from the transmitters of the senders, which unfortunately is very difficult to guarantee in practice. In this paper we relax this unrealistic assumption by presenting a general formalism to prove the security of MDI-QKD with leaky sources. With this formalism, we analyze the finite-key security of two prominent MDI-QKD schemes-a symmetric three-intensity decoy-state MDI-QKD protocol and a four-intensity decoy-state MDI-QKD protocol-and determine their robustness against information leakage from both the intensity modulator and the phase modulator of the transmitters. Our work shows that MDI-QKD is feasible within a reasonable time frame of signal transmission given that the sources are sufficiently isolated. Thus, it provides an essential reference for experimentalists to ensure the security of implementations of MDI-QKD in the presence of information leakage.
There is a large gap between theory and practice in quantum key distribution (QKD) because real devices do not satisfy the assumptions required by the security proofs. Here, we close this gap by introducing a simple and practical measurement-device-independent-QKD type of protocol, based on the transmission of coherent light, for which we prove its security against any possible imperfection and/or side channel from the quantum communication part of the QKD devices. Our approach only requires to experimentally characterize an upper bound of one single parameter for each of the pulses sent, which describes the quality of the source. Moreover, unlike device-independent (DI) QKD, it can accommodate information leakage from the users' laboratories, which is essential to guarantee the security of QKD implementations. In this sense, its security goes beyond that provided by DI QKD, yet it delivers a secret key rate that is various orders of magnitude greater than that of DI QKD.