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Frontiers in Optics

Fiber Optic Quantum Key Distribution with Single Photons from Quantum Dots

M. B. Ward, P. M. Intallura, Tristan Farrow, P. Atkinson, O. Z. Karimov, Zhiliang L. Yuan, Patrick See, D. A. Ritchie, A. J. Shields

Published Jan 1, 2008• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Telecom wavelength single photon emission is achieved from InAs/GaAs quantum dots in both optically and electrically excited devices. It has recently been possible to demonstrate quantum key distribution over fiber lengths up to 35 km.
DOI
10.1364/fio.2008.fwa4

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A demonstration of the principles of quantum key distribution (QKD) is performed using a single-photon source in a proof of concept test-bed over a distance of 2 km in standard telecommunications optical fiber. The single-photon source was an optically-pumped quantum dot in a microcavity emitting at a wavelength of 895 nm. Characterization of the QKD parameters was performed at a range of different optical excitation powers. An investigation of the effect of varying the optical excitation power of the quantum dot microcavity on the quantum bit error rate and cryptographic key exchange rate of the system are presented.
A source of bright and pure single photons is an essential tool for photonic quantum technologies, predicted to enable secure communication and networking. Self-assembled quantum dots are among the leading candidates to realise such a source. The currently highest-performing quantum dots emit at wavelengths unsuitable for fibre transmission, with telecom quantum dots lagging in performance. An intermediate step is to use quantum frequency conversion. Here we report to our knowledge the brightest quantum dot based source of telecom photons by frequency converting a near-infrared quantum dot embedded in a micropillar cavity to the telecom C-band. In a single-photon BB84 protocol, this source is capable of producing asymptotic keys rates of 1 kbps at over 150 km of optical fibre.
We report the distribution of a cryptographic key, secure from photon number splitting attacks, over 35km of optical fiber using single photons from an InAs quantum dot emitting ∼1.3μm in a pillar microcavity. Using below GaAs-bandgap optical excitation, we demonstrate suppression of multiphoton emission to 10% of the Poissonian level without detector dark count subtraction. The source is incorporated into a phase encoded interferometric scheme implementing the BB84 protocol for key distribution over standard telecommunication optical fiber. We show a transmission distance advantage over that possible with (length-optimized) uniform intensity weak coherent pulses at 1310nm in the same system.
We first succeeded in generating single-photon pulses in the C-band (1.55-µm band: the highest transmittance in optical telecommunication bands) from a single InAs/InP quantum dot. The quantum dot with 1546.1-nm exciton emission was prepared by controlling the growth conditions. A well-designed mesa structure presented efficient injection of the emitted photons into a single-mode optical fiber. A Hanbury-Brown and Twiss measurement has proved that the photons through the fiber were single photons. We also performed to transmit single-photon pulses through 30-km optical fiber. This preliminary trial is a milestone toward quantum telecommunication using ideal single photons.
Quantum-dot single-photon sources are promising for quantum communication. Yet, the most advanced devices operate near 900 nm, where standard single-mode fibers experience significant losses. We address this by employing a hollow-core fiber engineered for low-loss transmission at quantum-dot wavelengths, with measured loss of 0.65 dB/km and potentially as low as 0.13 dB/km near 934 nm. The same fiber also supports strong classical signals at 1550 nm without introducing detectable Raman noise. Using this platform, we transmit all four BB84 polarization states from an InAs quantum dot over 340 m with a quantum bit error rate of 0.1% while preserving single-photon purity and indistinguishability even in the presence of a strong classical signal. These results establish an integrated transmission platform that combines a custom-engineered anti-resonant hollow-core fiber with co-existence of classical and quantum channels, enabling practical quantum-dot-based quantum key distribution beyond the conventional telecom bands.