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IEEE International Conference on Advanced Infocomm Technology

A high-speed quantum key distribution system based on Faraday-Michelson interferometers

Xiao-Ming Lu, Yonggang Wang, Yang Yang

Published Nov 1, 2014• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

For the unconditional secure quantum key distribution (QKD), Faraday-Michelson interferometers (FMI) based system provide an intrinsic way to avoid the influence from the birefringence effect through fiber. In our paper, we designed an electronics system for the FMI-based QKD system with high repetition rate. The system was tested in 125 MHz repetition rate for more than 16 hours and obtained a quantum bit error rate less than 4%, which is to our knowledge the highest repetition rate result for FMI-based QKD system.

DOI
10.1109/icait.2014.7019546

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For the unconditional secure quantum key distribution (QKD), Faraday-Michelson interferometers (FMI) based system provide an intrinsic way to avoid the influence from the birefringence effect through fiber. In our paper, we designed an electronics system for the FMI-based QKD system with high repetition rate. The system was tested in 125 MHz repetition rate for more than 16 hours and obtained a quantum bit error rate less than 4%, which is to our knowledge the highest repetition rate result for FMI-based QKD system.
Quantum key distribution provides unconditional security for communication. Unfortunately, current experimental schemes are not suitable for long-distance fiber transmission because of phase drift or Rayleigh backscattering. In this Letter we present a unidirectional intrinsically stable scheme that is based on Michelson-Faraday interferometers, in which ordinary mirrors are replaced with 90 degree Faraday mirrors. With the scheme, a demonstration setup was built and excellent stability of interference fringe visibility was achieved over a fiber length of 175 km. Through a 125 km long commercial communication fiber cable between Beijing and Tianjin, the key exchange was performed with a quantum bit-error rate of less than 6%, which is to our knowledge the longest reported quantum key distribution experiment under field conditions.
The reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution (RFI QKD) protocol enables QKD systems to function effectively despite slowly varying reference frames, offering a distinct advantage in practical scenarios, particularly in mobile platforms. In this study, we successfully distribute secure key bits over a 250-km optical fiber distance by developing an RFI QKD system with a repetition rate of 150 MHz. Benefiting from high repetition rate, we achieve a finite-key secret key rate of 49.65 bit/s at a distance of 200 km, which is more than 3 times higher than state-of-the-art systems. Our work dramatically extends the transmission distance and enhances the secret key rate of RFI QKD, significantly promoting its practical application.
Secure communication networks enabled by commercial quantum key distribution (QKD) are already available. However, their widespread deployment will require great efforts towards reducing the currently prohibitive cost of QKD systems. Here, we propose a compact and cost-effective alternative to the asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer commonly used to implement phase encoding in the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) QKD protocol. Our solution consists of an all-fiber, in-line, highly birefringent interferometer (HBI). The HBI shows improved tolerance to length mismatches and a simpler assembly, making it particularly desirable for the fabrication of multi-user systems where several interferometers must have matched delays and where cost and space considerations can be most critical, such as quantum access networks. As a proof-of-principle, we demonstrate point-to-point QKD operation with HBIs over 15.5 km drop fiber and an 8-port passive optical network splitter. We achieve a secure key generation rate of 299.4 ± 16.4 kbit/s with a quantum bit error rate of 2.89 ± 0.31% for a continuous 25 h operation period.
The reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution (RFI QKD) protocol enables QKD systems to function effectively despite slowly varying reference frames, offering a distinct advantage in practical scenarios, particularly in mobile platforms. In this study, we successfully distribute secure key bits over a 250-km optical fiber distance by developing an RFI QKD system with a repetition rate of 150 MHz. Benefiting from high repetition rate, we achieve a finite-key secret key rate of 49.65 bit/s at a distance of 200 km, which is more than three times higher than state-of-the-art systems. Our work dramatically extends the transmission distance and enhances the secret key rate of RFI QKD, significantly promoting its practical application.
A new differential phase shift quantum key distribution system based on the intensity modulator with Faraday-Michelson interferometer is demonstrated experimentally. Some technologies are employed to improve the performance of the quantum key distribution system. These technologies include the clock generation technology of arbitrary frequency by a small scale frequency-split and phase locked loop scheme, the new method to acquire the half-wave voltage of the phase modulator with a high accuracy in the condition of the single photon count, and the auto-compensated polarization technology by the Faraday-Michelson interferometer. Finally, the quantum key distribution is achieved with a quantum bit error rate of 3.9% when the transmission distance reaches 50 km.
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.