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Papers in Physics

Autonomous open-source hardware apparatus for quantum key distribution

Ignacio H. López Grande, Christian Tomás Schmiegelow, M. A. Larotonda

Published Jan 21, 2016• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe an autonomous, fully functional implementation of the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol using open source hardware microcontrollers for the synchronization, communication, key sifting and real-time key generation diagnostics. The quantum bits are prepared in the polarization of weak optical pulses generated with light emitting diodes, and detected using a sole single-photon counter and a temporally multiplexed scheme. The system generates a shared cryptographic key at a rate of 365 bps, with a raw quantum bit error rate of 2.7%. A detailed description of the peripheral electronics for control, driving and communication between stages is released as supplementary material. The device can be built using simple and reliable hardware and it is presented as an alternative for a practical realization of sophisticated, yet accessible quantum key distribution systems.Received: 11 Novembre 2015, Accepted: 7 January 2016; Edited by: O. Martínez; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4279/PIP.080002Cite as: I H López Grande, C T Schmiegelow, M A Larotonda, Papers in Physics 8, 080002 (2016)This paper, by I H López Grande, C T Schmiegelow, M A Larotonda, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

DOI
10.4279/pip.080002

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We describe an autonomous, fully functional implementation of the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol using open source hardware microcontrollers for the synchronization, communication, key sifting and real-time key generation diagnostics. The quantum bits are prepared in the polarization of weak optical pulses generated with light emitting diodes, and detected using a sole single-photon counter and a temporally multiplexed scheme. The system generates a shared cryptographic key at a rate of 365 bps, with a raw quantum bit error rate of 2.7%. A detailed description of the peripheral electronics for control, driving and communication between stages is released as supplementary material. The device can be built using simple and reliable hardware and it is presented as an alternative for a practical realization of sophisticated, yet accessible quantum key distribution systems.Received: 11 Novembre 2015, Accepted: 7 January 2016; Edited by: O. Martínez; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4279/PIP.080002Cite as: I H López Grande, C T Schmiegelow, M A Larotonda, Papers in Physics 8, 080002 (2016)This paper, by I H López Grande, C T Schmiegelow, M A Larotonda, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.
In this work we introduce a complete Quantum Key Distribution device that implements a decoy-state protocol [1].Qubits are coded in the polarization state of weak optical pulses, produced by infrared LEDs [2].The link between Transmission (Alice) and Reception (Bob) stages is open air, which is the preferred channel to eventually through low-orbit satellites establish quantum communications.Both terminals are placed on different rooms, separated by approximately 8 meters.In order to compensate misalignments produced by small mechanic displacements or atmospheric thermal gradients, the system implements a closed-loop for automatic alignment based on a counter-propagating laser, a servo-actuated mirror and a CMOS image sensor.The apparatus runs in an autonomous way, and in the above described conditions it is able to generate raw cryptographic key at a rate of 185 bits/s, with a QBER of 6.15%.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) has emerged as a revolutionary technique that can ensure unconditionally secure communication between two distant parties, referred to as Alice and Bob, by exploiting the fundamental principles of quantum physics. Here, we report experimental demonstration of a fully automated QKD system based on the BB84 protocol. A weak coherent pulse source is developed to generate stream of polarization encoded single photons. Our QKD system demonstrates a low QBER of ∼1.2% with sifted key generation rate of ∼70 Kbps at an average photon number per pulse ofμ=0.11\mu=0.11μ=0.11. The final secure key rate of ∼33 Kbps is achieved after performing post processing procedures viz. error correction and privacy amplification. The quantum communication link is established continuously for several hours and the performance is evaluated iteratively. The developed QKD system is shown to have the capability of distributing cryptographic keys securely and seamlessly, under practical operating conditions. Furthermore, we have successfully demonstrated unconditionally secure transmission and reception of an image between Alice and Bob connected over an unsecured public channel by utilizing quantum cryptography.
Integrated photonics provides a promising platform for quantum key distribution (QKD) system in terms of miniaturization, robustness, and scalability. Tremendous QKD works based on integrated photonics have been reported. Nonetheless, most current chip-based QKD implementations require additional off-chip hardware to demodulate quantum states or perform auxiliary tasks such as time synchronization and polarization basis tracking. Here, we report a demonstration of resource-efficient chip-based BB84 QKD with a silicon-based encoder and a decoder. In our scheme, the time synchronization and polarization compensation are implemented relying on the preparation and measurement of the quantum states generated by on-chip devices; thus, we need no additional hardware. The experimental tests show that our scheme is highly stable with a low intrinsic quantum bit error rate of 0.50 % ±0.02 % in a 6 h continuous run. Furthermore, over a commercial fiber channel up to 150 km, the system enables the realization of secure key distribution at a rate of 866 bit/s. Our demonstration paves the way for a low-cost, wafer-scale manufactured QKD system.
We report on the implementation of a Bennett-Brassard 1984 quantum key distribution protocol over a free-space optical path on an optical table. Attenuated laser pulses and Pockels cells driven by a pseudorandom number generator are employed to prepare polarization-encoded photons. The sifted key generation rate of 23.6 kbits per second and the quantum bit error rate (QBER) of 3% have been demonstrated at the average photon number per pulse μ = 0.16. This QBER is sufficiently low to extract final secret keys from shared sifted keys via error correction and privacy amplification. We also tested the long-distance capability of our system by adding optical losses to the quantum channel and found that the QBER remains the same regardless of the loss.
Mastering the generation, propagation and detection of electro-magnetic waves has enabled a technological breakthrough that has changed our entire society. World-wide communication through the telephone and the internet has become an integral part of our daily-life, which is expected to grow even further with the emergence of the internet of things. While secure communication was of concern mostly for governmental and financial institutions, digital security has now caught the attention of the general public. The weaknesses of cur- rent encryption protocols, such as the existence of back-doors or the predicted breakdown of popular algorithms such as RSA, reveal the need for alternative encryption schemes ensuring unconditional security on all types of devices. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) has emerged as a powerful option to ensure a private communication between two users. Based on the laws of quantum mechanics, this class of protocols offers the possibility to detect the presence of a third party trying to intercept the key during its distribution, and even to quantify the amount of leaked information. While most research projects focus on long distance applications, little attention has been devoted to short distance schemes such as wireless payment, network access and authentication, which could highly benefit from QKD-enhanced security. This thesis focuses on the development of a miniature QKD sender add-on that could be embedded either in mobile devices or in existing optical communication platforms, thus allowing for a secure key exchange with a shared dedicated receiver over a free- space link. The proposed optics architecture (35 × 20 × 8 mm 3 ) is optimised for BB84-like protocols and uses an array of four Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers with highly similar properties to generate 40 ps long near-infrared faint coherent pulses at 100 MHz repetition rate. Under strong modulation, the polarisation of the pulses is not well defined and enables an external control of each diode’s emission by a wire-grid polariser. The four beams are spatially overlapped in a polarisation-insensitive femtosecond laser written waveguide array, and combined with a red beacon laser using an external beamsplitter to ensure a stable, synchronised optical link with the receiver. The complete module is compatible with current smartphone technology, allowing to run the classical post-processing over WLAN in the future. First tests with a free-space receiver indicate an average error ratio of 3.3 % and an asymptotic secure key rate of 54 kHz under static alignment. For the first time, a secure key exchange between a mobile platform held by a user and a receiver equipped with a dynamic alignment system could be demonstrated with an error ratio of 4.1 % and a secure key rate of 31 Hz. The further optimisation of the experimental parameters and the implementation of a decoy protocol will enhance the key generation rate as well as the general security of the system. The results of this thesis pave the way towards unprecedented security in wireless optical networks, as examplified for the communication between a mobile device and a dedicated receiver.
To enable practical real-time quantum key distribution (QKD) over free-space links, such as for satellite-to-ground secure communications, the encoding rate of the system should be sufficiently high to distribute long keys (>106bits) in a short period of time (< 300 seconds) [1]. Here, we report an optical assembly and driving electronics designed to form a low-size}, weight and power (SWaP) QKD transmitter, which can operate at gigahertz clock rates. The QKD transmitter employs multiple vertical cavity surface emission lasers (VCSELs), which provide a low power and high polarization extinction ratio (PER) source of weak coherent pulses of light. These light pulses are combined using an intrinsically stable optical combining module utilising polarization-maintaining fiber. In the experiments presented we employ discrete variable QKD via the decoy-state BB84 protocol to achieve high secure key rates over large channel losses [2]. We characterise the source using a free-space polarization decoder over short free-space links within the laboratory and explore the performance of the system with commercially available single photon detectors. Fig. 1 Plot showing the effect of varying the channel loss over the free-space link. We show the measured quantum bit error rate (blue circles), sifting rate (green triangles) and secure key rate (red squares) alongside the rates simulated using the measured system parameters (solid lines). We characterise the system up to ~38 db of channel loss, revealing positive key rates at relatively high channel loss.