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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Improvement of QKD with practical photon-number resolving detectors

Fang-Xing Xu, Zheng‐Fu Han, Guang‐Can Guo

Published Dec 11, 2008• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a scheme of BB84 quantum key distribution (QKD) with a triggered parametric down-conversion (PDC) source. According to different results of Alice's measurement using a photon number resolving (PNR) detector, we separate photon pulses into three sets to implement the passive decoy method. Performances of two different kinds of widely-used PNR detectors, TES and TMD, are investigated by simulation. With the parameters of PNR detectors nowadays, TES and TMD perform similarly. Both of them can improve the secure transmission distance up to 171 km. Furthermore, compared with the case using threshold detectors, this scheme can achieve a higher key generation rate.

DOI
10.1117/12.821881

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We propose a scheme of BB84 quantum key distribution (QKD) with a triggered parametric down-conversion (PDC) source. According to different results of Alice's measurement using a photon number resolving (PNR) detector, we separate photon pulses into three sets to implement the passive decoy method. Performances of two different kinds of widely-used PNR detectors, TES and TMD, are investigated by simulation. With the parameters of PNR detectors nowadays, TES and TMD perform similarly. Both of them can improve the secure transmission distance up to 171 km. Furthermore, compared with the case using threshold detectors, this scheme can achieve a higher key generation rate.
Parametric down-conversion (PDC) sources can be used as triggered single photon sources in quantum key distribution (QKD). Recently, there have been several practical proposals of the decoy state QKD with triggering PDC sources. In this paper, we generalize the passive decoy state idea, originally proposed by Mauerer and Silberhorn. The generalized passive decoy state idea can be applied to cases where either threshold detectors or photon-number-resolving detectors are used. The decoy state protocol proposed by Adachi, Yamamoto, Koashi and Imoto (AYKI) can be treated as a special case of the generalized passive decoy state method. By simulating a recent PDC experiment, we compare various practical decoy state protocols with the infinite decoy state protocol and also compare the cases using threshold detectors and photon-number-resolving detectors. Our simulation result shows that with the AYKI protocol, one can achieve a key generation rate that is close to the theoretical limit of an infinite decoy state protocol. Furthermore, our simulation result shows that a photon-number-resolving detector appears to be not very useful for improving QKD performance in this case. Although our analysis is focused on QKD with PDC sources, we emphasize that it can also be applied to QKD setups with other triggered single photon sources.
SARG04 protocol has its advantages in defending photon number splitting attack, benefited from two-photon pulses part. In this paper, we present a passive decoy state SARG04 scheme combining with practical photon number resolving (PNR) detectors. Two kinds of practical detectors, transition-edge sensor and time-multiplexing detector, are taken into consideration. Theoretical analysis shows that both of them are compatible with the passive decoy state SARG04. Compared with the original SARG04, two detectors can boost the key generation rate and maximal secure distance obviously. Meanwhile, the result shows that quantum efficiency and dark count of the detector influence the maximal distance slightly, which indicates the prospect of implementation in real quantum key distribution system with imperfect practical PNS detectors.
We discuss the influence of radiation field on the secure key size and the maximum safety distance during QKD by using a set of photons produced via a spontaneous parametric-down conversion (SPDC) photon source. Four implementations that use multiple-photons and decoy states are discussed, these include nondecoy state, infinite active decoy state, passive decoy state with threshold detector and passive decoy state with perfect photon-number resolving detector. Results show that the radiation field significantly improves both the secure key size and the maximum secure communication distance. Therefore, the radiation field is found to be a good candidate to reduce unwanted interactions of photons with the quantum channel and hence, to increase the secure key rate and the maximum safety distance between legitimate users.
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The security of quantum key distribution (QKD) is established by a security proof, and the security proof puts some assumptions on the devices consisting of a QKD system. Among such assumptions, security proofs of the six-state protocol assume the use of photon number resolving (PNR) detector, and as a result the bit error rate threshold for secure key generation for the six-state protocol is higher than that for the BB84 protocol. Unfortunately, however, this type of detector is demanding in terms of technological level compared to the standard threshold detector, and removing the necessity of such a detector enhances the feasibility of the implementation of the six-state protocol. Here, we develop the security proof for the six-state protocol and show that we can use the threshold detector for the six-state protocol. Importantly, the bit error rate threshold for the key generation for the six-state protocol (12.611%) remains almost the same as the one (12.619%) that is derived from the existing security proofs assuming the use of PNR detectors. This clearly demonstrates feasibility of the six-state protocol with practical devices.