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Acta Physica Sinica

Study on quantum key distribution between different media

Zhou Fei, Hai-Lin Yong, Dongdong Li, Juan Yin, Ji-Gang Ren, Peng Cheng-Zhi

Published Jan 1, 2014• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper mainly solves the photon polarization encoding problem of quantum key distribution (QKD) between different media. The influence of the transmission rate of different photon component on quantum bit error rate (QBER) has been quantitatively analyzed, with a practical analysis of QBER of QKD between air and water. Furthermore, we have put forward a single-photon compensation scheme for eliminating such non-ideal BB84 protocol, as well as a more robust and practical dual-photon encoding scheme to offset such interfacial non-unitary noise. This takes an important step towards the air-sea-ground wide area quantum communication in the future.

DOI
10.7498/aps.63.140303

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This paper mainly solves the photon polarization encoding problem of quantum key distribution (QKD) between different media. The influence of the transmission rate of different photon component on quantum bit error rate (QBER) has been quantitatively analyzed, with a practical analysis of QBER of QKD between air and water. Furthermore, we have put forward a single-photon compensation scheme for eliminating such non-ideal BB84 protocol, as well as a more robust and practical dual-photon encoding scheme to offset such interfacial non-unitary noise. This takes an important step towards the air-sea-ground wide area quantum communication in the future.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) has undergone significant development in recent decades, particularly with respect to free-space (air) and optical fiber channels. Here, we report a proof-of-principle experiment for the BB84 protocol QKD over a water channel. First, we demonstrate again the polarization preservation properties of the water channel in optical transmission according to the measured Mueller matrix, which is close to the unit matrix. The reason for the polarization preservation, revealed by Monte Carlo simulation, is that almost all the received photons are unscattered. Then, we performed the first polarization encoding BB84 protocol QKD over a 2.37 m water channel. The results show that QKD can be performed with a low quantum bit error rate, less than 3.5%, with different attenuation coefficients.
Underwater quantum key distribution (QKD) has potential applications in absolutely secure underwater communication. However, the performance of underwater QKD is limited by the optical elements, background light, and dark counts of the detector. In this paper, we propose a modified formula for the quantum bit error rate (QBER), which takes into account the effect of detector efficiency on the QBER caused by the background light. Then we calculate the QBER of the polarization encoding BB84 protocol in Jerlov-type seawater by analyzing the effect of the background light and optical components in a more realistic situation. Finally, we further analyze the final key rate and the maximum secure communication distance in three propagation modes, i.e., upward, downward, and horizontal modes. We find that secure QKD can be performed in the clearest Jerlov-type seawater at a distance of hundreds of meters, even in the worst downward propagation mode. Specifically, by optimizing the system parameters, it is possible to securely transmit information with a rate of 67 kbits/s at a distance of 100 m in the seawater channel with an attenuation coefficient of 0.03/m at night. For practical underwater QKD, the performance can also be improved by using decoy states. Our results are useful for long-distance underwater quantum communication.
The hybrid modulation quantum key distribution(QKD) via single-photon two-qubit states scheme is analyzed,and an improvement scheme is proposed.The input-output model of polarization is established.And the influence of the interferometers on the polarization coding is analyzed.Quantum bit error rate(QBER) of polarization coding caused by the phasic error of fast and slow axes and the alignment error between the basis vectors of polarization and polarization axis is simulated.Furthermore,the stability conditions of polarization are derived on this basis.The QBER of polarization coding can be influenced deeply by the fiber M-Z interferometers.The theoretic analysis reveals that the jitter of polarization state is not only derived from the birefringency,but also derived from coordinate system difference between incident light and fast and slow axes in fiber interferometer.Some necessary conditoins for the QKD via single-photon two-qubit states are given.The simulation show that when ρ and θ are both below 0.2 rad,the polarization QBER is less than 0.015.When ρ and θ are both below 0.4 rad,the polarization QBER is less than 0.06.The polarization QBER of 2%-5% in two-qubit QKD scheme could be accepted as far as the safety upper limit of QBER(11%) is concerned.
The characteristics of quantum channel play important roles on designing a high performance quantum communication system. In this paper, we analyze the fidelity of polarization state travelling through a non-Markovian optical fiber depolarizing quantum channel with color noise environment. The quantum bit error rate (QBER) of a polarization coding BB84 quantum key distribution (QKD) system under non-Markovian depolarizing channel is also discussed. Analysis results show that there are several security regions caused by the fluctuation of QBER in such a non-Markovian channel. These will provide references for designing polarization compensation scheme and estimating of secure distance.
In this work, we represent the principle of quantum cryptography (QC) that is based on fundamental laws of quantum physics.QC or Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) uses various protocols to exchange a secret key between two communicating parties.This research paper focuses and examines the quantum key distribution by using the protocol BB84 in the case of encoding on the single-photon polarization and shows the influence of optical components parameters on the quantum key distribution.We also introduce Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) to better interpret our results and show its relationship with the intrusion of the eavesdropper called Eve on the optical channel to exploit these vulnerabilities.
Affected by PMD(Polarization Mode Dispersion),the polarization state of the single photon will be randomly and slowly altered during the transmission in the fiber.This increases the error probability at the receiving end.So a means for measuring the variance to the preprocess polarization state is required for the distribution of the quantum key.A sensor with balanced detection is introduced to the BB84 protocol and the theoretical model of the QBER(Quantum Bit Error Rate) is established with POVM(Positive Operator Valued Measurement).The variance of the polarization state is measured with the Wollaston prism and the error is eliminated for the dual channel.The angle tolerance of the Wollaston prism is 0.1° and the numerical analysis by the use of the QBER model shows the new protocol decreases the error rate to 3.05×10-6.