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Optical Fiber Communication Conference

Atomic Clocks Technologies for Twin-Field QKD in Real World

Cecilia Clivati, Alice Meda, Simone Donadello, Filippo Levi, Marco Genovese, Alberto Mura, Salvatore Virzì, Mirko Pittaluga, Zhiliang L. Yuan, Andrew J. Shields, Marco Lucamarini, Ivo Pietro Degiovanni, Davide Calonico

Published Mar 1, 2023• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Twin-field quantum key distribution on optical fibers, a promising approach to long-distance secure communication, can take advantage from atomic clocks technologies such as narrow linewidth lasers and phase-coherent distribution of optical pulses. We will describe the integration of these technologies in a TF-QKD setup implemented on an extended metropolitan fiber network and report on the expected QKD performances.

DOI
10.23919/ofc49934.2023.10116738

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Twin-field quantum key distribution on optical fibers, a promising approach to long-distance secure communication, can take advantage from atomic clocks technologies such as narrow linewidth lasers and phase-coherent distribution of optical pulses. We will describe the integration of these technologies in a TF-QKD setup implemented on an extended metropolitan fiber network and report on the expected QKD performances.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows the sharing of secret cryptographic keys between two distant users, whose intrinsic security is guaranteed by the laws of nature.Nowadays, the most promising technique for the integration of QKD in already deployed long-haul telecommunication fiber networks is the Twin-field QKD (TF-QKD) protocol, but it requires that the communication channel is stable in terms of phase oscillations and it is free from background light, that reduces the transmission key-rate.Recently, we presented a solution [1] to the phase stabilization problem, derived from atomic clocks comparison technology, demonstrating advantages in performances of real word TF-QKD.Here we quantify and characterize the background photons, analyzing in details their effects on the transmission and the practicalities to reduce their contribution to a negligible level.
Nowadays, a technological challenge is to integrate quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols in already present telecommunication fiber networks. Twin-field QKD is one of the most promising techniques on long distances, but requires stabilizing the optical length of the communication channels between parties. Adapting interferometry techniques derived from frequency metrology, we developed a solution for the simultaneous key sharing and channel length control, and we demonstrated it on a 206 km field-deployed fiber with 65 dB loss. Our method reduces the quantum-bit-error-rate contributed by channel length variations to <1%, representing an effective solution for real-world quantum communications.
Twin-field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) has emerged as a promising solution for practical quantum communication over long-haul fiber. However, previous demonstrations on TF-QKD require the phase locking technique to coherently control the twin light fields, inevitably complicating the system with extra fiber channels and peripheral hardware. Here, we propose and demonstrate an approach to recover the single-photon interference pattern and realize TF-QKD without phase locking. Our approach separates the communication time into reference frames and quantum frames, where the reference frames serve as a flexible scheme for establishing the global phase reference. To do so, we develop a tailored algorithm based on fast Fourier transform to efficiently reconcile the phase reference via data postprocessing. We demonstrate no-phase-locking TF-QKD from short to long distances over standard optical fibers. At 50-km standard fiber, we produce a high secret key rate (SKR) of 1.27 Mbit/s, while at 504-km standard fiber, we obtain the repeaterlike key rate scaling with a SKR of 34 times higher than the repeaterless secret key capacity. Our work provides a scalable and practical solution to TF-QKD, thus representing an important step towards its wide applications.