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Experimental demonstration of polarization-based decoy-state BB84 quantum key distribution utilizing a single laser and single detector

Ross J. Donaldson, Cameron Simmons, Alfonso Tello Castillo

Published Sep 6, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

As quantum key distribution progresses into commercial products and services, there is growing interest in technological solutions that improve performance and/or reduce costs. We present an experimental demonstration of polarization-based decoy-state BB84 quantum key distribution protocol, at a clock frequency of 50 MHz, that relies on fewer resources at the receiver and increases robustness to side-channel attacks for both transmitter and receiver. A single-laser source and cascade of electro-optic modulators provide the four polarization states, while a photonic recombiner with time-multiplexed inputs enables detection with a single single-photon detector.

DOI
10.1364/opticaopen.26946883.v1

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As quantum key distribution progresses into commercial products and services, there is growing interest in technological solutions that improve performance and/or reduce costs. We present an experimental demonstration of polarization-based decoy-state BB84 quantum key distribution protocol, at a clock frequency of 50 MHz, that relies on fewer resources at the receiver and increases robustness to side-channel attacks for both transmitter and receiver. A single-laser source and cascade of electro-optic modulators provide the four polarization states, while a photonic recombiner with time-multiplexed inputs enables detection with a single single-photon detector.
As quantum key distribution progresses into commercial products and services, there is growing interest in technological solutions that improve performance and/or reduce costs. We present an experimental demonstration of polarization-based decoy-state BB84 quantum key distribution protocol, at a clock frequency of 50 MHz, that relies on fewer resources at the receiver and increases robustness to side-channel attacks for both transmitter and receiver. A single-laser source and cascade of electro-optic modulators provide the four polarization states, while a photonic recombiner with time-multiplexed inputs enables detection with a single single-photon detector.
As quantum key distribution progresses into commercial products and services, there is growing interest in technological solutions that improve performance and/or reduce costs. We present an experimental demonstration of the polarization-based three-level decoy-state BB84 quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol, at a clock frequency of 50 MHz, that relies on fewer resources at the receiver and increases robustness to side-channel attacks for both the transmitter and receiver. A single-laser source and cascade of electro-optic modulators provide the four polarization states, while a photonic recombiner with time-multiplexed inputs enables detection with a single detector.
As quantum communications (QC), in particular quantum key distribution (QKD) transitions from lab curiosity to commercial implementation, cost reduction will become essential to increase the user number and thus make commercialisation viable. QC is hardware intensive, meaning new and novel techniques and technologies are essential to that cost reduction strategy. We present an experimental demonstration of a polarisation-based decoy-state BB84 QKD protocol utilising a single laser source (enabled by application of cascaded electro-optic modulator to perform the pulse-carving and encoding) and single single-photon avalanche diode (enabled by the application of space-to-time multiplexing), which reduced the hardware requirements for the QKD transmitter and receiver, is presented.
Due to today's communication demands, we require a highly secure key rate. However, there is still a significant room for improvement. This paper proposes a method to enhance the decoy state BB84 Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) on the transmitter side. Since some studies have indicated that the switching speed of optical switches can reach the attosecond level, we aim to utilize optical switches to generate more qubits per unit of time. Due to the need for proper experimental equipment and single photon detectors, we could only conduct a proof-of-concept experiment to validate our idea. We also generate the electrical signals using Python Productivity for ZYNQ (PYNQ) to control the intensity modulator for creating decoy states and our switch design for generating polarization states. Our experimental results clearly distinguish between decoy states and polarization states. Furthermore, it also aligns with our simulation results. The advantages of our transmitter design include: a) Using an optical switch to increase the critical rate. b) Enhancing system stability by employing a single laser and a fixed polarization generation instrument. c) FPGA is easily integrated with other systems. d) User-friendly key generation and comparison are done through Python. In addition, while this paper focuses on the study of decoy-state BB84, it is also feasible to consider the utilization of optical switches in other QKD protocols.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises provably secure communications. In order to improve the secret key rate, combining a biased basis choice with the decoy-state method is proposed. Concomitantly, there is a basis-independent detection efficiency condition, which usually cannot be satisfied in a practical system, such as the time-phase encoding. Fortunately, this flaw has been recently removed theoretically and experimentally in the four-intensity decoy-state BB84 QKD protocol using the fact that the expected yields of single-photon states prepared in two bases stay the same for a given measurement basis. However, the security proofs do not fully consider the finite-key effects for general attacks. In this work, we provide the rigorous finite-key security bounds in the universally composable framework for the four-intensity decoy-state BB84 QKD protocol. We build a time-phase encoding system with 200 MHz clock to implement this protocol, in which the real-time secret key rate is more than 60 kbps over 50 km single-mode fiber.