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Optoelectronics Instrumentation and Data Processing

Study of Long-Term Stability of Free-Space Quantum Key Distribution at a Distance of 20 m in a Polarization Coding Scheme

A. S. Pleshkov, A. V. Kolyako, Denis B. Tretyakov, I. I. Ryabtsev, И. Г. Неизвестный

Published Feb 1, 2024• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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 $$7558\pm 83$$ bit s $${}^{-1}$$ and $$5.1\pm 0.84\%$$ , 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

DOI
10.3103/s8756699024700055

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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
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 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.
Экспериментально исследована работа созданной нами атмосферной установки для генерации квантового ключа, использующей протокол квантовой криптографии BB84 и поляризационное кодирование. Скорость генерации «просеянного» квантового ключа и уровень ошибочных битов в нём оставались постоянными в течение 1 ч и равнялись 7558 ± 83 бит/с и 5 , 1 ± 0 , 84 % соответственно при расстоянии между передатчиком и приёмником 20 м. Для приведённых параметров установки рассчитан минимально возможный коэффициент пропускания квантового канала, обеспечивающий секретность квантового ключа. The operation of our atmospheric quantum cryptography setup using the BB84 protocol and polarization coding has been investigated experimentally. The "sifted" quantum key distribution rate and the quantum bit error rate in the key remain constant for 1 hour and are equal to 7558±83 bit/s and 5.1±0.84%, respectively, at a distance of 20 m between the transmitter and receiver. The minimum possible transmittance of a quantum channel is calculated for these parameters of our setup.
In the age of information and globalisation, secure communication as well as the protection of sensitive data against unauthorised access are of utmost importance. Quantum cryptography currently provides the only way to exchange a cryptographic key between two parties in an unconditionally secure fashion. Owing to losses and noise of today's optical fibre and detector technology, at present quantum cryptography is limited to distances below a few 100 km. In principle, larger distances could be subdivided into shorter segments, but the required quantum repeaters are still beyond current technology. An alternative approach for bridging larger distances is a satellite-based system, that would enable secret key exchange between two arbitrary points on the globe using free-space optical communication. The aim of the presented experiment was to investigate the feasibility of satellite-based global quantum key distribution. In this context, a free-space quantum key distribution experiment over a real distance of 144 km was performed. The transmitter and the receiver were situated in 2500 m altitude on the Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife, respectively. The small and compact transmitter unit generated attenuated laser pulses, that were sent to the receiver via a 15-cm optical telescope. The receiver unit for polarisation analysis and detection of the sent pulses was integrated into an existing mirror telescope designed for classical optical satellite communications. To ensure the required stability and efficiency of the optical link in the presence of atmospheric turbulence, the two telescopes were equipped with a bi-directional automatic tracking system. Still, due to stray light and high optical attenuation, secure key exchange would not be possible using attenuated pulses in connection with the standard BB84 protocol. The photon number statistics of attenuated pulses follows a Poissonian distribution. Hence, by removing a photon from all pulses containing two or more photons, an eavesdropper could measure its polarisation without disturbing the polarisation state of the remaining pulse. In this way, he can gain information about the key without introducing detectable errors. To protect against such attacks, the presented experiment employed the recently developed method of using additional "decoy" states, i.e., the the intensity of the pulses created by the transmitter were varied in a random manner. By analysing the detection probabilities of the different pulses individually, a photon-number-splitting attack can be detected. Thanks to the decoy-state analysis, the secrecy of the resulting quantum key could be ensured despite the Poissonian nature of the emitted pulses. For a channel attenuation as high as 35 dB, a secret key rate of up to 250 bit/s was achieved. Our outdoor experiment was carried out under real atmospheric conditions and with a channel attenuation comparable to an optical link from ground to a satellite in low earth orbit. Hence, it definitely shows the feasibility of satellite-based quantum key distribution using a technologically comparatively simple system.
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.
Free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) provides crucial advantages, including mobility and deployment exibility, for securing next-generation communication networks. However, atmospheric turbulence and beam wander severely degrade single-photon coupling effciency and link stability over outdoor channels. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate a free-space decoy-state BB84 QKD system operating at 803 nm with a 100 MHz repetition rate over a 2 km outdoor link. By employing an active beam-wander correction based on fast-steering mirrors (FSMs) and position sensitive detectors (PSDs) with a 500 Hz control loop, we enhance the ?ber coupling effciency and achieve an average ?nite-key secure key rate of 110 kbps with an average quantum bit error rate (QBER) of 3.28 %, representing a 2.5 times secure key rate enhancement under an active beam stabilization. This work demonstrates the indispensability of active beam stabilization and provides an operational reference for robust, long-range free-space quantum communication.