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Applied Physics Letters

Stable differential phase shift quantum key distribution with a key creation efficiency of 3/4

Xiuliang Chen, Chunyuan Zhou, Guang Wu, Heping Zeng

Published Apr 1, 2004• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1063/1.1690494

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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 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.
This report proposes a “Plug and Play” quantum key distribution system using differential phase shift, in which any birefringence effects and polarization-dependent losses in the telecom fiber are automatically compensated by using a Faraday mirror. In this system, a light pulse is split into three pulses after traveling through four couplers and a light intensity feedback servosystem is plugged into this system in order to adjust the phase shifter to compensate the variation of these three pulses. The efficiency of key creation in this system is 8/3 higher than the conventional cryptosystem based on the BB84 protocol.
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.
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.
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.