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Scientific Reports

Measurement device-independent quantum key distribution with vector vortex modes under diverse weather conditions

Comfort Sekga, Mhlambululi Mafu

Published Sep 11, 2023• 11 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Most quantum key distribution schemes exploiting orbital angular momentum-carrying optical beams are based on conventional set-ups, opening up the possibility of detector side-channel attacks. These optical beams also suffer from spatial aberrations due to atmospheric turbulence and unfavorable weather conditions. Consequently, we introduce a measurement device-independent quantum key distribution implemented with vector vortex modes. We study the transmission of vector vortex and scalar beams through a turbulent atmospheric link under diverse weather conditions such as rain or haze. We demonstrate that a maximum secure key transmission distance of 178 km can be achieved under clear conditions by utilizing the vector vortex beams, which have been mainly ignored in the literature. When raindrops have a diameter of 6 mm and fog particles have a radius of 0.5 [Formula: see text]m, the signals can reach 152 km and 160 km, respectively. Since these distances are comparable, this work sheds light into the feasibility of implementing measurement device-independent quantum key distribution using vector vortex modes under diverse weather conditions. Most significantly, this opens the door to practical secure quantum communications.

DOI
10.1038/s41598-023-40602-x

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Most quantum key distribution schemes exploiting orbital angular momentum-carrying optical beams are based on conventional set-ups, opening up the possibility of detector side-channel attacks. These optical beams also suffer from spatial aberrations due to atmospheric turbulence and unfavorable weather conditions. Consequently, we introduce a measurement device-independent quantum key distribution implemented with vector vortex modes. We study the transmission of vector vortex and scalar beams through a turbulent atmospheric link under diverse weather conditions such as rain or haze. We demonstrate that a maximum secure key transmission distance of 178 km can be achieved under clear conditions by utilizing the vector vortex beams, which have been mainly ignored in the literature. When raindrops have a diameter of 6 mm and fog particles have a radius of 0.5 [Formula: see text]m, the signals can reach 152 km and 160 km, respectively. Since these distances are comparable, this work sheds light into the feasibility of implementing measurement device-independent quantum key distribution using vector vortex modes under diverse weather conditions. Most significantly, this opens the door to practical secure quantum communications.
The effects of weather conditions are ubiquitous in practical wireless quantum communication links. Here in this work, the performances of atmospheric continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (CV-MDI-QKD) under diverse weather conditions are analyzed quantitatively. According to the Mie scattering theory and atmospheric CV-MDI-QKD model, we numerically simulate the relationship between performance of CV-MDI-QKD and the rainy and foggy conditions, aiming to get close to the actual combat environment in the future. The results show that both rain and fog will degrade the performance of the CV-MDI-QKD protocol. Under the rainy condition, the larger the raindrop diameter, the more obvious the extinction effect is and the lower the secret key rate accordingly. In addition, we find that the secret key rate decreases with the increase of spot deflection distance and the fluctuation of deflection. Under the foggy condition, the results illustrate that the transmittance decreases with the increase of droplet radius or deflection distance, which eventually yields the decrease in the secret key rate. Besides, in both weather conditions, the increase of transmission distance also leads the secret key rate to deteriorate. Our work can provide a foundation for evaluating the performance evaluation and successfully implementing the atmospheric CV-MDI-QKD in the future field operation environment under different weather conditions.
Free-space optical communication links are promising channels for establishing secure quantum communication. Here we study the transmission of nonclassical light through a turbulent atmospheric link under diverse weather conditions, including rain or haze. To include these effects, the theory of light transmission through atmospheric links in the elliptic-beam approximation presented by Vasylyev et al. [D. Vasylyev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 090501 (2016)] is further generalized. It is demonstrated, with good agreement between theory and experiment, that low-intensity rain merely contributes additional deterministic losses, whereas haze also introduces additional beam deformations of the transmitted light. Based on these results, we study theoretically the transmission of quadrature squeezing and Gaussian entanglement under these weather conditions.
The vector vortex (VV) beam, originally introduced to exhibit a form of single-particle quantum entanglement between different degrees of freedom, has specific applications for quantum-information protocols. In this paper, by combining measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDIQKD) with a spontaneous parametric-downconversion source (SPDCS), we present a modified MDIQKD scheme with pairs of VV beams, which shows a structure of hybrid entangled entanglement corresponding to intrasystem entanglement and intersystem entanglement. The former entanglement, which is entangled between polarization and orbit angular momentum within each VV beam, is adopted to overcome the polarization misalignment associated with random rotations in quantum key distribution. The latter entanglement, which is entangled between the two VV beams, is used to perform the MDIQKD protocol with SPDCS to inherit the merit of the heralded process. The numerical simulations show that our modified scheme has apparent advances both in transmission distance and key-generation rate compared to the original MDIQKD. Furthermore, our modified protocol only needs to insert qqq plates in a practical experiment.
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing provides an infinite-dimensional discrete Hilbert space ideally suited for high-capacity free-space quantum key distribution (QKD). Nevertheless, pure scalar spatial modes carrying topological charge (∣ℓ∣≥1|\ell| \ge 1∣ℓ∣≥1) undergo severe decoherence when transmitted through terrestrial atmospheric turbulence. Turbulent refractive-index eddies split high-order vortex singularities, induce catastrophic intermodal crosstalk across adjacent topological channels, and rapidly drive the quantum bit error rate (QBER) well above the unconditional 11% security threshold associated with individual cloning attacks. Here, we demonstrate that hybrid polarization-OAM entangled states, known as vector vortex beams (VVBs), provide intrinsic, hardware-free immunity against turbulent perturbations. Because the optical anisotropy of terrestrial air is exceedingly small (Δn<10−9Δn < 10^{-9}Δn<10−9), refractive-index fluctuations couple symmetrically to orthogonal circular polarization modes as an identical common-mode scalar phase screen that cancels in the relative polarization-phase degree of freedom. By numerically propagating modal fields through modified power-spectral phase screens over turbulence strengths ranging from D/r0=0D/r_0 = 0D/r0​=0 to 3.03.03.0, we show that the VVB encoding protocol suppresses the asymptotic QBER from 42.0% to 4.8%, yielding an error-suppression factor of approximately 11.6 without requiring active adaptive optics or deformable mirrors.
In this paper, by combining measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) scheme with entangled photon sources, we present a modified MDI-QKD scheme with pairs of vector vortex(VV) beams, which shows a structure of hybrid entangled entanglement corresponding to intrasystem entanglement and intersystem entanglement. The former entanglement, which is entangled between polarization and orbit angular momentum within each VV beam, is adopted to overcome the polarization misalignment associated with random rotations in quantum key distribution. The latter entanglement, which is entangled between the two VV beams, is used to perform entangled-based MDI-QKD protocol with pair of VV beams to inherit the merit of long distance. The numerical simulations show that our modified scheme can tolerate 97dB with practical detectors. Furthermore, our modified protocol only needs to insert q-plates in practical experiment.
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) has the characteristics of high dimension and rotational symmetry. Quantum key distribution (QKD) schemes using OAM can carry more quantum information, improve the transmission capacity of information and reduce the errors caused by reference frame calibration errors. In this paper, we propose a measurement-device-independent QKD scheme based on OAM with dual detectors. On the basis of the measurement-device-independent QKD protocol, we use OAMs to encode the key information and then send them to a third-party measurement device. In the process of measurement, we adopt the dual-detector theory to improve key generation rate and transmission distance. Simulation analyses show that the secure transmission distance of our scheme can reach 140 km, which is about 30km more than the scheme using single detector.