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Physical Review A

Photon-number-resolved heralded-photon source for improved quantum key distribution

Tomoyuki Horikiri, Yuishi Takeno, Atsushi Yabushita, Takayoshi Kobayashi

Published Jul 9, 2007• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have suppressed multiphoton probability of a heralded-photon source, which is vital for quantum key distribution with a higher secure key generation rate. It is accomplished by utilizing a practical photon-number-resolving detector for triggering resulting in an important step for improved practical quantum key distribution. Heralded-photon source and a practical photon-number-resolving detector capable of real-time processed multiphoton rejection are stably operable at room temperature and enable us to generate a secure key at a distance as long as an ideal single photon source is used.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.76.012306

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We have suppressed multiphoton probability of a heralded-photon source, which is vital for quantum key distribution with a higher secure key generation rate. It is accomplished by utilizing a practical photon-number-resolving detector for triggering resulting in an important step for improved practical quantum key distribution. Heralded-photon source and a practical photon-number-resolving detector capable of real-time processed multiphoton rejection are stably operable at room temperature and enable us to generate a secure key at a distance as long as an ideal single photon source is used.
Recently a long distance and high key rate quantum key distribution (QKD) has become possible by the idea of the decoy state method. We show that a longer distance QKD is possible by utilizing a heralded single photon source (utilizing spontaneous parametric down-conversion) as a source instead of a weak coherent pulse (WCP) as proposed in the original decoy state method. Moreover, the key rate is improved by utilizing a presently available photon number resolving detector as a trigger detector of the heralded single photon source and it is shown to approach the key rate of the WCP.
Recently, a long-distance and high-key-rate quantum key distribution (QKD) has become possible by the idea of the decoy state method. We show that a longer distance QKD is possible by utilizing a heralded single-photon source (HSPS) utilizing spontaneous parametric down-conversion as a source instead of a weak coherent pulse (WCP) as proposed in the original decoy state method. Moreover, the key rate is improved by utilizing a presently available photon number resolving detector as a trigger detector of the HSPS, and it is shown to approach the key rate of the WCP.
In practical quantum key distribution (QKD) systems, the heralded single photon source (HSPS) based on parametric down-conversion (PDC) has attracted significant attentions from many researchers because its various advantages compared to the weak coherent source. We propose a heralded single photon source-based decoy-state QKD with dual detectors and demonstrate in a theoretical simulation that this method improves the performance of QKD system. The secure key generation rate is increased significantly with our proposal both in thermal and Poisson distributions of photons. The secure key rate produced by our scheme is higher than the state of the art key rate of current high-speed QKD system. The decoy-state QKD system using the heralded single photon source with dual detectors can be an important alternative for the present practical QKD systems.
We analyze theoretically the performance of four-state quantum key distribution protocols implemented with a realistic heralded single-photon source. The analysis assumes a noisy model for the detector heralding generation of individual photons via spontaneous parametric down-conversion, including dark counts and imperfect photon number resolution. We identify characteristics of the heralding detector that defines the attainable cryptographic key rate and the maximum secure distance. Approximate analytical formulas are applied to multiplexed detection and compared with results of numerical calculations.
We propose a high security quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme utilizing one mode of spontaneous parametric downconversion gated by a photon number resolving detector. This photon number measurement is possible by using single-photon detectors operating at room temperature and optical fibers. By post selection, the multiphoton probability in this scheme can be reduced to lower than that of a scheme using an attenuated coherent light resulting in improvement of security. Furthermore, if distillation protocol (error correction and privacy amplification) is performed, the gain will be increased. Hence a QKD system with higher security and bit rate than the laser-based QKD system can be attained using present available technologies.