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arXiv:2606.04947 · APL Photonics

Phase-correlation-free quantum key distribution source operating at gigahertz rates

Shashank Kumar, Alessandro Marcomini, Loïc Millet, Towsif Taher, Aurélien Cavalié, Raphael Houlmann, David Cabrerizo, Gianluca Boso, Marcos Curty, Rob Thew, Boris Korzh

quant-phSubmitted Jun 3, 2026• Announced Jun 4, 2026• 0 citations

Abstract

Phase randomization is essential for the security of practical decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. Commonly, implementations rely on laser sources which are either actively phase-randomized, or gain-switched. However, at high repetition rates these show correlations, which can ultimately compromise security and performance. We present a 1.25 GHz phase-randomized QKD source based on a super-luminescent light emitting diode (SLED) operating in the C-band as a compact and cost-effective alternative. The source generates $\sim100$ ps optical pulses with $400$ ps pulse-to-pulse separation, compatible with high-speed time-bin encoding. Interferometric measurements demonstrate $>99\%$ visibility between adjacent time bins, confirming strong first-order coherence within the same quantum signals, while the spontaneous-emission-driven nature of the SLED ensures intrinsic global phase randomization between adjacent signals. This work establishes a scalable SLED-based platform for high-speed prepare-and-measure QKD systems.

Journal reference: APL Photonics 11, 081302 (2026)
DOI: 10.1063/5.0347954
Comments: 11 pages (7 pages main text and 4 pages Supplementary), 10 figures (5 in main text and 5 in supplementary), Poster accepted in Qcrypt 2026

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Phase randomization is essential for the security of practical decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. Commonly, implementations rely on laser sources which are either actively phase-randomized, or gain-switched. However, at high repetition rates these show correlations, which can ultimately compromise security and performance. We present a 1.25 GHz phase-randomized QKD source based on a super-luminescent light emitting diode (SLED) operating in the C-band as a compact and cost-effective alternative. The source generates

\sim100

ps optical pulses with

400

ps pulse-to-pulse separation, compatible with high-speed time-bin encoding. Interferometric measurements demonstrate

\sim100

visibility between adjacent time bins, confirming strong first-order coherence within the same quantum signals, while the spontaneous-emission-driven nature of the SLED ensures intrinsic global phase randomization between adjacent signals. This work establishes a scalable SLED-based platform for high-speed prepare-and-measure QKD systems.

Gain-switching of laser diodes is a well-established technique for generating optical pulses with random phases, where the quantum randomness arises naturally from spontaneous emission. However, the maximum switching rate is limited by the time required for phase diffusion: at high repetition rates, residual photons in the cavity seed subsequent pulses, leading to phase correlations, which degrade randomness. We present a method to overcome this limitation by employing an external source of spontaneous emission in conjunction with the laser. Our results show that this approach substantially suppresses interpulse phase correlations, restoring phase randomization at repetition rates as high as 10 GHz. This technique opens new opportunities for high-rate quantum key distribution and quantum random number generation.

Multi-photon emissions in laser sources represent a serious threat for the security of quantum key distribution (QKD). While the decoy-state technique allows to solve this problem, it requires uniform phase randomisation of the emitted pulses. However, gain-switched lasers operating at high repetition rates do not fully satisfy this requirement, as residual photons in the laser cavity introduce correlations between the phases of consecutive pulses. Here, we introduce experimental schemes to characterise the phase probability distribution of the emitted pulses, and demonstrate that an optimisation task over interferometric measures suffices in determining the impact of arbitrary order correlations, which ultimately establishes the security level of the implementation according to recent security proofs. We expect that our findings may find usages beyond QKD as well.

High-speed light source is realized for decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) at telecom wavelength of 1.55 µm.By implementing two different electrical pulses together and triggering with 100 MHz pseudorandom number to drive the laser diode, the signal-state and the decoy-state pulses are prepared with identical pulse duration of 25 ps and similar spectral characteristics, avoiding the eavesdropper's attack by temporal and spectral analysis.The intensity fluctuation of the light source is quantified to satisfy the practical decoy-state QKD with random intensity error.The characteristics of the light source are analyzed with a high-speed single-photon detector.

Phase-randomized light is one of the key assumptions in the security proof of the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) quantum-key-distribution (QKD) protocol using an attenuated laser. Though the assumption has been believed to be satisfied for conventional systems, it should be reexamined for current high-speed QKD systems. The phase correlation may be induced by the overlap of the optical pulses, the interval of which decreases as the clock frequency increases. The phase randomness was investigated experimentally by measuring the visibility of interference. An asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer was used to observe the interference between adjacent pulses from a gain-switched distributed feedback laser diode driven at 10 GHz. Low visibility was observed when the minimum drive current was set far below the threshold, while interference emerged when the minimum drive current was close to the threshold. The theoretical evaluation on the impact of the imperfect phase randomization provides target values for the visibility to guarantee the phase randomness. The experimental and theoretical results show that secure implementation of decoy BB84 protocol is achievable even for the 10-GHz clock frequency by using the laser diode under proper operating conditions.

High-speed light source is realized for decoy-state quantum key distribution(QKD) at telecom wavelength of 1.55 μm. By implementing two different electrical pulses together and triggering with 100 MHz pseudorandom number to drive the laser diode, the signal-state and the decoy-state pulses are prepared with identical pulse duration of 25 ps and similar spectral characteristics, avoiding the eavesdropper’s attack by temporal and spectral analysis. The intensity fluctuation of the light source is quantified to satisfy the practical decoy-state QKD with random intensity error. The characteristics of the light source are analyzed with a high-speed single-photon detector.

Since the introduction of the decoy-state technique, phase-randomized weak coherent light pulses have been the key to increase the practicality of quantum-based communications. Their ultrafast generation was accomplished via compact gain-switched (GS) lasers, leading to high key rates in quantum key distribution (QKD). Recently, the question arose whether the same laser could be employed to achieve high-speed measurement-device-independent QKD, a scheme that promises long-haul quantum communications immune to all detector attacks. For that, a challenging high-visibility interference between independent picosecond optical pulses is required. Here, we answer the above question in the affirmative by demonstrating high-visibility interference from two independent GS lasers triggered at 1 GHz. The result is obtained through a careful characterization of the laser frequency chirp and time jitter. By relating these quantities to the interference visibility, we obtain a parameter-free verification of the experimental data and a numerical simulation of the achievable key rates. These findings are beneficial to other applications making use of GS lasers, including random number generation and standard QKD.