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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim (CLEO-PR)

Adaptive polarization-state monitoring and stabilization scheme for one-way polarization-encoded quantum key distribution systems

Shengrong Timothy Yu, Jiun Yan Yap, Mao Tong Liu, Wenhan Wang, Han Chuen Lim

Published Aug 1, 2015• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate an adaptive polarization-state monitoring and stabilization scheme for one-way polarization-encoded QKD. Polarization references are sent at a repetition rate that is adapted to the polarization drift condition to maintain a low QBER.
DOI
10.1109/cleopr.2015.7376021

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A proof-of-principle demonstration of a one-way polarization encoding quantum key distribution (QKD) system is demonstrated. This approach can automatically compensate for birefringence and phase drift. This is achieved by constructing intrinsically stable polarization-modulated units (PMUs) to perform the encoding and decoding, which can be used with four-state protocol, six-state protocol, and the measurement-device-independent (MDI) scheme. A polarization extinction ratio of about 30 dB was maintained for several hours over a 50 km optical fiber without any adjustments to our setup, which evidences its potential for use in practical applications.
Polarization encodings for quantum key distribution (QKD) in fiber suffer from strain- and temperature-induced polarization instabilities, which can be addressed using a polarization control system. The polarization instability can be reduced to a single phase parameter by using polarization maintaining (PM) fiber. However, phase control in PM fiber is typically applied to phase stabilization on signals coupled into only one bases of the PM fiber, making such methods insufficient for QKD which encodes signals in orthogonal bases. We describe an active system to monitor and control the phase in PM fiber to enable PM fiber based QKD systems.
In 1946, C. E. Shannon proved that One-Time Pad is truly unbreakable [1].However, stringent conditions pose difficulties such as the key distribution problem which limited its practicability.Fortunately, public key cryptosystem widely used today was developed to solve the key distribution problem.Its security is based on the assumption that an adversary has limited computational power to factor a number with large prime factors.With the increase in computational power and technological advancement, this security may one day be compromised.In contrast, quantum key distribution (QKD) offers a platform for secure key distribution and everlasting secrecy.Unlike conventional cryptography, quantum key distribution's security is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics.The basic principle of quantum key distribution is to encode classical binary bit information onto the properties of quantum states such as the polarisation of a photon.Because of the quantum no-cloning theorem, an eavesdropper is unable to simply duplicate these photons.Moreover, by intercepting these photons, the eavesdropper will leave detectable trace which will reveal its presence.In 1989, the first experimental demonstration of QKD using the polarisations of single photons based on the BB84 protocol occurred through 32cm of air [2].Since then, QKD over hundreds of kilometres of optical fibre Abstract iv and free space have been reported [3][4][5].Key generation rate of a few megahertz have also been demonstrated [6][7][8].However, photons travelling through optical fibres are subjected to random polarisation drifts.Moreover, clock drifts often causes inaccuracy during the detection of these photons.If these performance issues were not addressed, the reliability and availability of QKD systems and their cryptographic keys will be affected.Therefore, polarisation recovery schemes have been implemented to mitigated polarisation drifts [9][10][11][12][13][14].However, these schemes often limit the transmission distance, slow down or even disrupt the key generation process for polarisation recovery.These limitations lead to the proposed development of a polarisation-encoded QKD system based on an adaptive polarisation state monitoring and recovery scheme that adapts the system to the existing polarisation drift condition in the transmission link to enhance its reliability and availability.On the other hand, current high-speed single-photon detection schemes are often designed to work with idealised parameters such as fixed gating rate and operating temperature.Therefore, such schemes are unable to accommodate changes in gating frequency induced by clock drifts which results in the reduction of detection efficiency.Hence, a proposed robust high-speed singlephoton avalanche diode with tunable sinusoidal gate frequency was developed to mitigate the effect caused by clock drift in order to maintain the detection efficiency over varying operating conditions.
In this work, a fully functional polarization-encoding quantum key distribution system (QKD) is demonstrated. At the transmitter side, the polarization states are prepared using an algorithm to determine the voltages to be applied on the electronic polarization controller (EPC), to generate up to four polarization states. At the receiver, a second EPC is used to perform the basis alignment. The symbol synchronization is achieved using a reference optical signal that is wavelength division multiplexed with the quantum signal which carries the polarization-encoded qubit. Frame synchronization is achieved at a protocol level. The presented QKD system works at a repetition rate of 500 Hz, with an average quantum bit error rate of 1.35%.
Polarization modulation plays a key role in polarization-encoding quantum key distribution (QKD). Here, we report a new, to the best of our knowledge, polarization modulation scheme based on an inherently stable Sagnac interferometer. The presented scheme is free of polarization mode dispersion and calibration as well as insensitive to environmental influences. Successful experiments at a repetition frequency of 1.25 GHz have been conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and stability of the scheme. The measured average quantum bit-error rate of the four polarization states is as low as 0.27% for 80 consecutive minutes without any adjustment. This high-speed intrinsically stable polarization modulation can be widely applied to many polarization-encoding QKD systems, such as BB84, MDI, etc.