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Quantum Information and Measurement (QIM)

Multi-User Quantum Key Distribution With Entangled Photons From A Semiconductor Chip

Claire Autebert, Julien Trapateau, Adeline Orieux, Aristide Lemaître, Carmen Gómez, Eleni Diamanti, Isabelle Zaquine, S. Ducci

Published Jan 1, 2017• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate multi-user entanglement-based quantum key distribution using a AlGaAs chip emitting polarization entangled photon pairs at telecom wavelength and a standard dense wavelength division demultiplexer.
DOI
10.1364/qim.2017.qt6a.20

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In view of real world applications of quantum information technologies, the combination of miniature quantum resources with existing fibre networks is a crucial issue. Among such resources, on-chip entangled photon sources play a central role for applications spanning quantum communications, computing and metrology. Here, we use a semiconductor source of entangled photons operating at room temperature in conjunction with standard telecom components to demonstrate multi-user quantum key distribution, a core protocol for securing communications in quantum networks. The source consists of an AlGaAs chip emitting polarization entangled photon pairs over a large bandwidth in the main telecom band around 1550 nm without the use of any off-chip compensation or interferometric scheme; the photon pairs are directly launched into a dense wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM) and secret keys are distributed between several pairs of users communicating through different channels. We achieve a visibility measured after the DWDM of 87% and show long-distance key distribution using a 50-km standard telecom fibre link between two network users. These results illustrate a promising route to practical, resource-efficient implementations adapted to quantum network infrastructures.
Abstract In view of real-world applications of quantum information technologies, the combination of miniature quantum resources with existing fibre networks is a crucial issue. Among such resources, on-chip entangled photon sources play a central role for applications spanning quantum communications, computing and metrology. Here, we use a semiconductor source of entangled photons operating at room temperature in conjunction with standard telecom components to demonstrate multi-user quantum key distribution, a core protocol for securing communications in quantum networks. The source consists of an AlGaAs chip-emitting polarisation entangled photon pairs over a large bandwidth in the main telecom band around 1550 nm without the use of any off-chip compensation or interferometric scheme; the photon pairs are directly launched into a dense wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM) and secret keys are distributed between several pairs of users communicating through different channels. We achieve a visibility measured after the DWDM of 87% and show long-distance key distribution using a 50-km standard telecom fibre link between two network users. These results illustrate a promising route to practical, resource-efficient implementations adapted to quantum network infrastructures.
We experimentally demonstrate multi-user distribution of polarization entanglement using commercial telecom wavelength division demultiplexers. The entangled photon pairs are generated from a broadband source based on spontaneous parametric down conversion in a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal using a double path setup employing a Michelson interferometer and active phase stabilisation. We test and compare demultiplexers based on various technologies and analyze the effect of their characteristics, such as losses and polarization dependence, on the quality of the distributed entanglement for three channel pairs of each demultiplexer. In all cases, we obtain a Bell inequality violation, whose value depends on the demultiplexer features. This demonstrates that entanglement can be distributed to at least three user pairs of a network from a single source. Additionally, we verify for the best demultiplexer that the violation is maintained when the pairs are distributed over a total channel attenuation corresponding to 20 km of optical fiber. These techniques are therefore suitable for resource-efficient practical implementations of entanglement-based quantum key distribution and other quantum communication network applications.
Abstract The dense quantum entanglement distribution is the basis for practical quantum communication, quantum networks and distributed quantum computation. To make entanglement distribution processes stable enough for practical and large-scale applications, it is necessary to perform them with the integrated pattern. Here, we first integrate a dense wavelength-division demultiplexing system and unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers on one large-scale photonic chip and demonstrate the multi-channel wavelength multiplexing entanglement distribution among distributed photonic chips. Specifically, we use one chip as a sender to produce high-performance and wideband quantum photon pairs, which are then sent to two receiver chips through 1-km standard optical fibers. The receiver chip includes a dense wavelength-division demultiplexing system and unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers and realizes multi-wavelength-channel energy-time entanglement generation and analysis. High quantum interference visibilities prove the effectiveness of the multi-chip system. Our work paves the way for practical entanglement-based quantum key distribution and quantum networks.
Quantum cryptography with entangled photon pairs can be more powerful than protocols based onsingle photons or weak coherent pulses: they can tolerate higher losses and thus allow thedistribution of quantum secret keys (QKD) over longer distances [1], they also provide a waytowards device-independent quantum cryptography [2]. However, in order to enable a wide use ofentangled photon pairs in future quantum telecommunication systems, further developments areneeded to demonstrate performant sources that can be easily fabricated and integrated into Telecomfiber networks.Here we present a source consisting of an aluminium gallium arsenide waveguide generatingphoton pairs in the Telecom band by type II spontaneous parametric down-conversion [3]. Such adevice has already been proven to work under electrical pumping [4]. Thanks to the very smallbirefringence of the guided modes, the pairs are directly generated in a polarization-entangled Bellstate, without the need for any post-compensation. Moreover, as the photons are emitted over alarge bandwidth (about 100 nm) with a joint spectrum that exhibits frequency anticorrelation, thesame source can be used to simultaneously distribute keys among multiple pairs of users by usingstandard Telecom wavelength demultiplexers [5]. Here, we experimentally show the distribution ofquantum secret keys with the BBM92 QKD protocol [6] between four different pairs of users with acommercial 100 GHz demultiplexer (0.8 nm channel width and spacing). Under CW pumpingconditions, using free-running InGaAs single-photon detectors, we achieve a secret key rate of 0.21bits/s and a qubit error rate (QBER) of 6.9% over 50 km of standard optical fiber.Our results, obtained with a robust and simple experimental set-up, open the way towards theimplementation of practical device-independent quantum communication protocols.