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Passive scheme with a photon-number-resolving detector for decoy-state quantum key distribution with an untrusted source

Bingjie Xu, Xiang Peng, Hong Mei Guo

Published Feb 1, 2010• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

A passive scheme with a photon-number-resolving detector and a beam splitter which are used to monitor the statistical characteristics of photon source, is proposed to verify the security of three-intensity decoy-state quantum key distribution system with an untrusted source. The practical issues due to statistical fluctuation and detection noise are analyzed. The simulation results show that the scheme can work efficiently when the data size $N\ge10^{8}$ and the dark count rate of the detector is below 0.5 counts/pulse, which are realizable by current techniques. We also give an experimental example of PNR detector which is easily realized by a variable optical attenuator combined with a practical threshold detector.

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Passive scheme with a photon-number-resolving detector for monitoring the untrusted source in a plug-and-play quantum-key-distribution system

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A passive scheme with a beam splitter and a photon-number-resolving (PNR) detector is proposed to verify the photon statistics of an untrusted source in a plug-and-play quantum-key-distribution system by applying a three-intensity decoy-state protocol. The practical issues due to statistical fluctuation and detection noise are analyzed. The simulation results show that the scheme can work efficiently when the total number of optical pulses sent from Alice to Bob is above ${10}^{8}$, and the dark count rate of the PNR detector is below 0.5 counts/pulse, which is realizable with current techniques. Furthermore, we propose a practical realization of the PNR detector with a variable optical attenuator combined with a threshold detector.

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Abstract. Photon number resolving detectors can enhance the performance of many practical quantum cryptographic setups. In this paper, we employ a simple method to estimate the statistics provided by such a photon number resolving detector using only a threshold detector together with a variable attenuator. This idea is similar in spirit to that of the decoy state technique, and is specially suited for those scenarios where only a few parameters of the photon number statistics of the incoming signals have to be estimated. As an illustration of the potential applicability of the method in quantum communication protocols, we use it to prove security of an entanglement based quantum key distribution scheme with an untrusted source without the need of a squash model and by solely using this extra idea. In this sense, this detector decoy method can be seen as a different conceptual approach to adapt a single photon security proof to its physical, full optical implementation. We show that in this scenario the legitimate users can now even discard the double click events from the raw key data without compromising the security of the scheme, and we present simulations on the performance of the BB84 and the 6-state quantum key distribution protocols. 1.

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Passive decoy-state quantum key distribution with practical light sources

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Decoy states have been proven to be a very useful method for significantly enhancing the performance of quantum key distribution systems with practical light sources. Although active modulation of the intensity of the laser pulses is an effective way of preparing decoy states in principle, in practice passive preparation might be desirable in some scenarios. Typical passive schemes involve parametric down-conversion. More recently, it has been shown that phase-randomized weak coherent pulses (WCP) can also be used for the same purpose [M. Curty et al., Opt. Lett. 34, 3238 (2009).] This proposal requires only linear optics together with a simple threshold photon detector, which shows the practical feasibility of the method. Most importantly, the resulting secret key rate is comparable to the one delivered by an active decoy-state setup with an infinite number of decoy settings. In this article we extend these results, now showing specifically the analysis for other practical scenarios with different light sources and photodetectors. In particular, we consider sources emitting thermal states, phase-randomized WCP, and strong coherent light in combination with several types of photodetectors, like, for instance, threshold photon detectors, photon number resolving detectors, and classical photodetectors. Our analysis includes as well the effect that detection inefficiencies and noise in the form of dark counts shown by current threshold detectors might have on the final secret key rate. Moreover, we provide estimations on the effects that statistical fluctuations due to a finite data size can have in practical implementations.

arXiv:0911.2815•Physical Review A•Feb 10, 2010•82 citations
A passive scheme with a photon-number-resolving detector and a beam splitter which are used to monitor the statistical characteristics of photon source, is proposed to verify the security of three-intensity decoy-state quantum key distribution system with an untrusted source. The practical issues due to statistical fluctuation and detection noise are analyzed. The simulation results show that the scheme can work efficiently when the data size N≥108N\ge10^{8}N≥108 and the dark count rate of the detector is below 0.5 counts/pulse, which are realizable by current techniques. We also give an experimental example of PNR detector which is easily realized by a variable optical attenuator combined with a practical threshold detector.
A passive scheme with a beam splitter and a photon-number-resolving (PNR) detector is proposed to verify the photon statistics of an untrusted source in a plug-and-play quantum-key-distribution system by applying a three-intensity decoy-state protocol. The practical issues due to statistical fluctuation and detection noise are analyzed. The simulation results show that the scheme can work efficiently when the total number of optical pulses sent from Alice to Bob is above 108{10}^{8}108, and the dark count rate of the PNR detector is below 0.5 counts/pulse, which is realizable with current techniques. Furthermore, we propose a practical realization of the PNR detector with a variable optical attenuator combined with a threshold detector.
Photon number resolving detectors can enhance the performance of many practical quantum cryptographic setups.In this paper, we employ a simple method to estimate the statistics provided by such a photon number resolving detector using only a threshold detector together with a variable attenuator.This idea is similar in spirit to that of the decoy state technique, and is especially suited to those scenarios where only a few parameters of the photon number statistics of the incoming signals have to be estimated.As an illustration of the potential applicability of the method in quantum communication protocols, we use it to prove security of an entanglement-based quantum key distribution scheme with an untrusted source without the need for a squash model and by solely using this extra idea.In this sense, this detector decoy method can be seen as a different conceptual approach to adapt a single-photon security proof to its physical, full optical implementation.We show that in this scenario, the legitimate users can now even discard the double click events from the raw key data without compromising the security of the scheme, and we present simulations on the performance of the BB84 and the 6-state quantum key distribution protocols.
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.
Abstract. Photon number resolving detectors can enhance the performance of many practical quantum cryptographic setups. In this paper, we employ a simple method to estimate the statistics provided by such a photon number resolving detector using only a threshold detector together with a variable attenuator. This idea is similar in spirit to that of the decoy state technique, and is specially suited for those scenarios where only a few parameters of the photon number statistics of the incoming signals have to be estimated. As an illustration of the potential applicability of the method in quantum communication protocols, we use it to prove security of an entanglement based quantum key distribution scheme with an untrusted source without the need of a squash model and by solely using this extra idea. In this sense, this detector decoy method can be seen as a different conceptual approach to adapt a single photon security proof to its physical, full optical implementation. We show that in this scenario the legitimate users can now even discard the double click events from the raw key data without compromising the security of the scheme, and we present simulations on the performance of the BB84 and the 6-state quantum key distribution protocols. 1.
The performance of active decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) system with an untrusted source is compared with that of passive decoy-state QKD. The key generation rate with the change of the secure transmission distance is shown under the condition of active decoy-state (or passive decoy-state) QKD where we pick the data size to be N=1012. The security characteristics of the passive scheme are studied with statistical fluctuation of the counting rate and the intensity of the practical source. At communication wavelength 1310 nm or 1550 nm, The security range of communication distance is [73.2 km, 96.5 km] or [104.5 km, 137.9 km] respectively. This analysis will provide important theoretical parameters for practical QKD experiment.
Decoy states have been proven to be a very useful method for significantly enhancing the performance of quantum key distribution systems with practical light sources. Although active modulation of the intensity of the laser pulses is an effective way of preparing decoy states in principle, in practice passive preparation might be desirable in some scenarios. Typical passive schemes involve parametric down-conversion. More recently, it has been shown that phase-randomized weak coherent pulses (WCP) can also be used for the same purpose [M. Curty et al., Opt. Lett. 34, 3238 (2009).] This proposal requires only linear optics together with a simple threshold photon detector, which shows the practical feasibility of the method. Most importantly, the resulting secret key rate is comparable to the one delivered by an active decoy-state setup with an infinite number of decoy settings. In this article we extend these results, now showing specifically the analysis for other practical scenarios with different light sources and photodetectors. In particular, we consider sources emitting thermal states, phase-randomized WCP, and strong coherent light in combination with several types of photodetectors, like, for instance, threshold photon detectors, photon number resolving detectors, and classical photodetectors. Our analysis includes as well the effect that detection inefficiencies and noise in the form of dark counts shown by current threshold detectors might have on the final secret key rate. Moreover, we provide estimations on the effects that statistical fluctuations due to a finite data size can have in practical implementations.