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Applied Physics Letters

Efficient quantum key distribution with stable and expansible differential phase shift schemes

Xiuliang Chen, Chunyuan Zhou, Guang Wu, Heping Zeng

Published Aug 27, 2004• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Efficient quantum key distribution can be achieved by using a stable differential phase shift scheme, with an expansible setup mainly composed of several parallel Mach–Zehnder interferometers, a serial Mach–Zehnder interferometer, and a Faraday mirror. An expansion of the scheme by adding more parallel Mach–Zehnder interferometers can conveniently increase the key creation efficiencies, and the energies of the interfering pulses can be equalized easily without changing the phase shifts in the serial interferometer. The long-term stabilities are guaranteed by using a multifeedback servo-system and Faraday mirror. And the sensibilities of the scheme to the disturbance of eavesdropping are improved by increasing the key creation efficiencies. The security of the scheme against some possible attacks, such as intercept/resend attack and Trojan horse attack, are discussed.

DOI
10.1063/1.1786658

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Efficient quantum key distribution can be achieved by using a stable differential phase shift scheme, with an expansible setup mainly composed of several parallel Mach–Zehnder interferometers, a serial Mach–Zehnder interferometer, and a Faraday mirror. An expansion of the scheme by adding more parallel Mach–Zehnder interferometers can conveniently increase the key creation efficiencies, and the energies of the interfering pulses can be equalized easily without changing the phase shifts in the serial interferometer. The long-term stabilities are guaranteed by using a multifeedback servo-system and Faraday mirror. And the sensibilities of the scheme to the disturbance of eavesdropping are improved by increasing the key creation efficiencies. The security of the scheme against some possible attacks, such as intercept/resend attack and Trojan horse attack, are discussed.
We present a stable and deterministic quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on differential phase shift. With three cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometers with different arm-length differences for creating key, its key creation efficiency can be improved to be 7/8, more than other systems. Any birefringence effects and polarization-dependent losses in the long-distance fiber are automatically compensated with a Faraday mirror. Added an eavesdropping check, this system is more secure than some other phase-coding-based QKD systems. Moreover, the classical information exchanged is reduced largely and the modulation of phase shifts is simplified. All these features make this QKD system more convenient than others in a practical application.
In this letter, we demonstrate that a high key creation efficiency can be achieved in a stable differential phase shift quantum key distribution system by using three cascaded Mach–Zehnder interferometers. A pulse is split into four independent pulses, and the bit information is carried by one of the three phase differences between the sequential pulses. Any birefringence effects and polarization-dependent losses in the long-distance fiber are automatically compensated with a Faraday mirror. Due to the neatly use of three cascaded interferometers, the key creation efficiency reaches 3/4.
We propose and demonstrate an improved differential phase shift key distribution scheme. Alice uses a pulsed laser source and two cascaded fiber loops to get coherent pulses, then modulates them randomly under differential phase shift scheme, which compensates for the random polarization mode dispersion and phase shift. An interferometer made up of two Faraday mirrors is employed to detect single photon under gate mode. In one-way transmission, QKD is free from Trojan attack. Our experiment at setup can work stably for a long time (at least 24h) with an error ratio of 3%. The stable scheme is efficient, economical and favorable for practical application.
We propose an auto-compensating differential phase shift scheme for quantum key distribution with a high key-creation efficiency, which skillfully makes use of automatic alignment of the photon polarization states in optical fiber with modified Michelson interferometers composed of unequal arms with Faraday mirrors at the ends. The Faraday-mirrors-based Michelson interferometers not only function as pulse splitters, but also enable inherent compensation of polarization mode dispersion in the optic-fiber paths at both Alice's and Bob's sites. The sequential pulses encoded by differential phase shifts pass through the quantum channel with the same polarization states, resulting in a stable key distribution immune to the polarization mode dispersion in the quantum channel. Such a system features perfect stability and higher key creation efficiency over traditional schemes.
A differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution experiment was carried out with a planar light-wave circuit (PLC) Mach-Zehnder interferometer. This scheme has two advantages: it requires no polarization control and has a high repetition frequency, provided that a stable interferometer is available. Stable polarization-insensitive operation was achieved with an interferometer fabricated by PLC technology. Raw key creation at a rate of 3076 bits/s with a 5.0% quantum bit-error rate was achieved over 20 km of fiber. The stability of the PLC interferometer was examined.
A novel type of quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol, called DPS (differential-phase-shift) QKD, was proposed several years ago. A sender transmits a highly-attenuated coherent pulse train with {0, π} phase, and a receiver receives it with a one-bit delay Mach-Zehnder interferometer followed by photon detectors. A secret key is created from photon detection events, whose security is based on the fact that an eavesdropper cannot perfectly measure the phase information of a highly-attenuated coherent pulse train. This protocol has some features of simple setup, potential for a high key creation rate, and robustness against photon-number-splitting attack. This paper overviews DPS-QKD. The operation mechanism is described, and then some experimental efforts are introduced, featuring use of a glass waveguide Mach-Zehnder interferometer and advanced single-photon detectors. The highest key rate and the longest distance have been achieved with the DPS-QKD protocol. Some modified schemes are also presented, including that utilizing quantum entanglement, that using decoy pulses, and that using macroscopic coherent light.