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Siberian Journal of Physics

Investigation of Long-Term Stability of Single-Photon Quantum Key Distribution in a Polarization Coding Scheme

A. V. Kolyako, A. S. Pleshkov, Denis B. Tretyakov, Vasily M. Entin, I. I. Ryabtsev, Igor G. Neizvestny

Published Jan 12, 2022• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Experimental results demonstrating long-term stability of the operation of our atmospheric quantum cryptography setup using the BB84 protocol and polarization coding are presented. It was shown that the “sifted” quantum key distribution rate and the quantum bit error rate in the key remained constant for 1 hour and were equal to 10 kbit/s and 6.5 %, respectively, at a distance between the transmitter and the receiver equal to 20 cm. Theoretical dependences of the secret quantum key generation rate on a quantum channel transmission coefficient for single-photon detectors, which were used in this experiment, and for new detectors with a reduced level of dark pulses are given.

DOI
10.25205/2541-9447-2021-16-2-81-93

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Experimental results demonstrating long-term stability of the operation of our atmospheric quantum cryptography setup using the BB84 protocol and polarization coding are presented. It was shown that the “sifted” quantum key distribution rate and the quantum bit error rate in the key remained constant for 1 hour and were equal to 10 kbit/s and 6.5 %, respectively, at a distance between the transmitter and the receiver equal to 20 cm. Theoretical dependences of the secret quantum key generation rate on a quantum channel transmission coefficient for single-photon detectors, which were used in this experiment, and for new detectors with a reduced level of dark pulses are given.
The operation of our atmospheric quantum cryptography system using the BB84 protocol and polarization coding is experimentally studied. The distribution rate of the sifted quantum key and the quantum bit error rate in the key remained constant for 1 hour and were 7558±837558\pm 837558±83 bit s −1{}^{-1}−1 and 5.1±0.84%5.1\pm 0.84\%5.1±0.84% , respectively, at the distance of 20 m between the transmitter and receiver. The minimum possible transmittance of a quantum channel, ensuring the security of a quantum key, is calculated for the given parameters of the system
Work presents the brief review of the contemporary state of quantum cryptography science. Main principles of the quantum cryptography protocol development are illustrated by giving the example of BB84 protocol. Examples of experimental setups for the quantum key distribution through the atmosphere and fiber quantum channel are described in this work. The work presents results of experiments conducted on the developed setup based on single photon polarization coding. Problem of single photon detection in the visible and near IR area is considered. Work describes developed fiber based quantum cryptography working with the telecom wavelength 1555 nm. With the use of this experimental setup using the 25 km single mode telecom fiber (1555 nm wavelength) between sender and receiver we achieved the 450 bit/s quantum key generation with the use of 5 MHz pulse repetition rate, ~0.2 photon/pulse. Given the achieved photodetector parameters an average quantum bit error rate is less than 3.7%.
The authors of this work made a device for free space quantum key distribution with using of polarization encoding, operating at frequencies of 0.3–1.6 GHz. According to BB84 protocol, the polarization states of photons, with a wavelength of 1.55 µm, are being used for encoding information. At the probability to find a photon in single pulses of 0.20, there is a sifted quantum key distribution rate of 170 kbps with the corresponding quantum bit error rate of 1.4 %. At short distances between the transmitter and the receiver, the possibility of quantum key distribution with phase encoding was experimentally proved.
We report on the implementation of a Bennett-Brassard 1984 quantum key distribution protocol over a free-space optical path on an optical table. Attenuated laser pulses and Pockels cells driven by a pseudorandom number generator are employed to prepare polarization-encoded photons. The sifted key generation rate of 23.6 kbits per second and the quantum bit error rate (QBER) of 3% have been demonstrated at the average photon number per pulse μ = 0.16. This QBER is sufficiently low to extract final secret keys from shared sifted keys via error correction and privacy amplification. We also tested the long-distance capability of our system by adding optical losses to the quantum channel and found that the QBER remains the same regardless of the loss.
This paper reports on the results of experimental investigations into the distribution of a quantum key on a setup designed for quantum cryptography with single photons. The quantum key is transmitted with pulsed semiconductor lasers by coding polarization states of photons in two alternative nonorthogonal bases. Silicon avalanche photodiodes (C30902S) serve as single-photon detectors. The rate of key generation is equal to 1.8 kbit/s when the clock frequency of laser pulse repetition is 100 kHz and the mean number of photons per pulse is approximately equal to 0.2. The number of errors in the key does not exceed 1%.
The calibration of the polarization basis between the transmitter and receiver is an important task in quantum key distribution. A continuously working polarization-basis tracking scheme (PBTS) will effectively promote the efficiency of the system and reduce the potential security risk when switching between the transmission and calibration modes. Here, we proposed a single-photon level continuously working PBTS using only sifted key bits revealed during an error correction procedure, without introducing additional reference light or interrupting the transmission of quantum signals. We applied the scheme to a polarization-encoding BB84 QKD system in a 50 km fiber channel, and obtained an average quantum bit error rate (QBER) of 2.32% and a standard derivation of 0.87% during 24 h of continuous operation. The stable and relatively low QBER validates the effectiveness of the scheme.