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International Journal of Quantum Information

Triggering parametric-down conversion-based quantum key distribution via radiation field

Tchoffo Martin, Tene Alain Giresse, Djebayole Mimbe III Yannick

Published Sep 1, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We discuss the influence of radiation field on the secure key size and the maximum safety distance during QKD by using a set of photons produced via a spontaneous parametric-down conversion (SPDC) photon source. Four implementations that use multiple-photons and decoy states are discussed, these include nondecoy state, infinite active decoy state, passive decoy state with threshold detector and passive decoy state with perfect photon-number resolving detector. Results show that the radiation field significantly improves both the secure key size and the maximum secure communication distance. Therefore, the radiation field is found to be a good candidate to reduce unwanted interactions of photons with the quantum channel and hence, to increase the secure key rate and the maximum safety distance between legitimate users.

DOI
10.1142/s0219749920500379

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We discuss the influence of radiation field on the secure key size and the maximum safety distance during QKD by using a set of photons produced via a spontaneous parametric-down conversion (SPDC) photon source. Four implementations that use multiple-photons and decoy states are discussed, these include nondecoy state, infinite active decoy state, passive decoy state with threshold detector and passive decoy state with perfect photon-number resolving detector. Results show that the radiation field significantly improves both the secure key size and the maximum secure communication distance. Therefore, the radiation field is found to be a good candidate to reduce unwanted interactions of photons with the quantum channel and hence, to increase the secure key rate and the maximum safety distance between legitimate users.
Parametric down-conversion (PDC) sources can be used as triggered single photon sources in quantum key distribution (QKD). Recently, there have been several practical proposals of the decoy state QKD with triggering PDC sources. In this paper, we generalize the passive decoy state idea, originally proposed by Mauerer and Silberhorn. The generalized passive decoy state idea can be applied to cases where either threshold detectors or photon-number-resolving detectors are used. The decoy state protocol proposed by Adachi, Yamamoto, Koashi and Imoto (AYKI) can be treated as a special case of the generalized passive decoy state method. By simulating a recent PDC experiment, we compare various practical decoy state protocols with the infinite decoy state protocol and also compare the cases using threshold detectors and photon-number-resolving detectors. Our simulation result shows that with the AYKI protocol, one can achieve a key generation rate that is close to the theoretical limit of an infinite decoy state protocol. Furthermore, our simulation result shows that a photon-number-resolving detector appears to be not very useful for improving QKD performance in this case. Although our analysis is focused on QKD with PDC sources, we emphasize that it can also be applied to QKD setups with other triggered single photon sources.
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The fully passive source is capable of passively generating decoy states and performing passive encoding simultaneously, avoiding the side-channel risks caused by active modulation operations at the source end, thus effectively enhance the security in quantum key distribution (QKD). Existing fully passive QKD protocol and experiments exploit phase-randomized coherent pulses. In this paper, we propose a fully passive QKD protocol using parametric down-conversion source. The decoy state generation and encoding operation can be carried out passively by parameter down-conversion progress. This protocol has several advantages. First, it can also eliminate all side channels in active modulators. Second, compared with fully passive QKD protocol with phase-randomized coherent pulses, our protocol can significantly increase the key rate and extend the communication distance. Meanwhile, in terms of the transmission rate, our protocol is also closer to that of actively modulated QKD and can achieve fully passive modulation with fewer resources. Moreover, combined with measurement-device-independent (MDI) QKD, this protocol can even potentially achieve robustness against side channels in both detectors and modulators.
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