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Acta Physica Sinica

Experimental research on disturbance resistant polarization modulation mode for quantum key distribution

Qi-Qi Shen, Yi Zhang, Jindong Wang, Ya‐Fei Yu, Zhengjun Wei, Zhi‐Ming Zhang

Published Jan 1, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on mobile equipment can provide an effective method to construct a real-time full-coverage multi-node network. However, the existing free-space QKD systems based on mobile devices encounter the challenge regarding the lack of stability caused by equipment disturbance. The robustness of the QKD polarization encoder against mobile device disturbance will be significant. Owing to the inevitable disturbance in practical applications, even the polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) cannot maintain its polarization-maintaining characteristics well, which in turn affects the stability of some systems based on PMF. Therefore, in order to ensure that stable coding can be achieved under disturbances, we propose a two-way differential modulation mode, in which stable coding can still be achieved even under disturbances. At the same time, in order to verify the actual anti-disturbance characteristics of the mode, the polarization-modulated unit (PMU) with a two-way differential modulation mode is used in this study to generate four long-term stable polarization states subjected to the disturbances with a frequency of 200 Hz. At the same time, the PMU has a higher insertion loss, which makes the influence of crosstalk on the system more obvious. We also discuss two ways i.e. the time domain and frequency domain, to reduce the crosstalk which is caused by the imperfection of the device. The experiment is performed at a repetition frequency of 250 MHz, and a commercial avalanche single-photon detector is used to detect the system’s quantum bit error rate (QBER). Under the condition of no disturbance, the average QBER is 0.39% in 2 h. Then a vibration of approximately 200 Hz is used to simulate the practical disturbances, the average QBER is 0.36% in 2 h, and the fluctuation range of the QBER is only within 0.2%. We propose the first feasible encoding scheme in disturbed environments to ensure the long-term stability of the encoded polarization states, which is expected to be used in the multi-node expansion of the quantum network.

DOI
10.7498/aps.70.20210749

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A free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on mobile equipment can provide an effective method to construct a real-time full-coverage multi-node network. However, the existing free-space QKD systems based on mobile devices encounter the challenge regarding the lack of stability caused by equipment disturbance. The robustness of the QKD polarization encoder against mobile device disturbance will be significant. Owing to the inevitable disturbance in practical applications, even the polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) cannot maintain its polarization-maintaining characteristics well, which in turn affects the stability of some systems based on PMF. Therefore, in order to ensure that stable coding can be achieved under disturbances, we propose a two-way differential modulation mode, in which stable coding can still be achieved even under disturbances. At the same time, in order to verify the actual anti-disturbance characteristics of the mode, the polarization-modulated unit (PMU) with a two-way differential modulation mode is used in this study to generate four long-term stable polarization states subjected to the disturbances with a frequency of 200 Hz. At the same time, the PMU has a higher insertion loss, which makes the influence of crosstalk on the system more obvious. We also discuss two ways i.e. the time domain and frequency domain, to reduce the crosstalk which is caused by the imperfection of the device. The experiment is performed at a repetition frequency of 250 MHz, and a commercial avalanche single-photon detector is used to detect the system’s quantum bit error rate (QBER). Under the condition of no disturbance, the average QBER is 0.39% in 2 h. Then a vibration of approximately 200 Hz is used to simulate the practical disturbances, the average QBER is 0.36% in 2 h, and the fluctuation range of the QBER is only within 0.2%. We propose the first feasible encoding scheme in disturbed environments to ensure the long-term stability of the encoded polarization states, which is expected to be used in the multi-node expansion of the quantum network.
The experimental demonstration of measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) has been widely demonstrated. Thus far, several experimental groups have implemented polarization encoding MDI-QKD but with manual polarization controllers, or polarization modulators that make circular polarization states unstable. Here, we apply an intrinsically stable polarization-modulated unit (PMU) to MDI-QKD so that Alice and Bob can modulate four BB84 polarization states, all of which can be kept stable from even the harsh environment. Moreover, our PMU can provide two operational polarization encoding modes suitable to different application scenarios. A proof-of-principle demonstration of MDI-QKD based on our PMU is implemented with an interference visibility of 46.6%, an average quantum bit error rate of 1.49% for the Z basis and the secure key rate of 4.25 × 10−6 bits per pulse. The proposed study is helpful for building polarization encoding MDI-QKD systems with better stability.
A proof-of-principle demonstration of a one-way polarization encoding quantum key distribution (QKD) system is demonstrated. This approach can automatically compensate for birefringence and phase drift. This is achieved by constructing intrinsically stable polarization-modulated units (PMUs) to perform the encoding and decoding, which can be used with four-state protocol, six-state protocol, and the measurement-device-independent (MDI) scheme. A polarization extinction ratio of about 30 dB was maintained for several hours over a 50 km optical fiber without any adjustments to our setup, which evidences its potential for use in practical applications.
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.
In a commercial fiber-based quantum key distribution system, the local and signal optical fields are transmitted through long distance fibers by using time division multiplexing and polarization multiplexing. The state of polarization of the optical field is inevitably disturbed by random birefringence of the standard single-mode fiber caused by external complex environments. This drift of the state of polarization significantly affects the balanced homodyne detection results and the secret key rate. Therefore, the key technology of the dynamic polarization control unit is crucial for the system in a large-scale commercial application. We theoretically analyze and prove that the polarization control unit only needs the combination of two degrees of freedom when considering the result of an arbitrary polarization extinction ratio at the receiver of the system. To overcome the influence of polarization variations, we propose a chaotic monkey algorithm based on Bayesian parameter estimation method and implement intelligence algorithm on field programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware under pulsed light with an integral-type detector for the dynamic polarization control unit. The simulation results show that the optimal combination is four degrees of freedom and the optimal prior distribution is an exponential distribution among various distributions in the dynamic polarization control unit. According to the simulation results, the experimental results show that the achieved polarization extinction ratio is over 30 dB and the average time of polarization control is 400 μs for a single random polarization scrambling. By combining the dynamic polarization control unit with the system, we demonstrate the continuous variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) under a continuous polarization scrambling scope of 0－2 krad/s and verify its effectiveness. In addition, the methods presented will improve the performance of the system and expand the range of applications even under strong external disturbance.
Self-stabilization quantum key distribution (QKD) systems are often based on the Faraday magneto-optic effect such as “plug and play” QKD systems and Faraday–Michelson QKD systems. In this article, we propose a new anti-quantum-channel disturbance decoder for QKD without magneto-optic devices, which can be a benefit for the photonic integration and applications in magnetic environments. The decoder is based on a quarter-wave plate reflector–Michelson (Q–M) interferometer, with which the QKD system can be free of polarization disturbance caused by quantum channel and optical devices in the system. The theoretical analysis indicates that the Q–M interferometer is immune to polarization-induced signal fading, where the operator of the Q–M interferometer corresponding to Pauli Matrix σ2 makes it satisfy the anti-disturbance condition naturally. A Q–M interferometer based time-bin phase encoding QKD setup is demonstrated, and the experimental results show that the QKD setup works stably with a low quantum bit error rate about 1.3% for 10 h over 60.6 km standard telecommunication optical fiber.
Continuous variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) can guarantee that two parties share secure keys even in the presence of an eavesdropper. However, the polarization direction of the coherent state transmitted in CV-QKD is susceptible to environmental disturbances during channel transmission, making it difficult to share keys consistently over long periods of time. Therefore, a CV-QKD system that can resist environmental disturbance is very urgent. In this paper, we propose a new optical architecture for CV-QKD based on the Faraday-Michelson interference (FMI) structure, and finally form an all-single-mode (SM) fiber-based stable CV-QKD system which employs transmitted local oscillator (TLO) scheme and discrete modulation coherent state (DMCS) protocol. Specifically, since the Faraday mirror rotates the polarization direction of light by 90 o , the birefringence effect of light can be effectively dealt with, thus ensuring the same polarization state of light before and after reflection. The final simulation results show that the theoretical secret key rate of this scheme can reach 139 kbps at 70 km, which can further improve the stability and robustness of CV-QKD in the real environment, and provide technical support for the next-generation high-stability QKD system.