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Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

850 nm VCSEL array for decoy state quantum key distribution

Michael Zimmer, Katharina Dahler, Michael Jetter, Peter Michler

Published Mar 19, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers the advantage of secure data communication based on the laws of physics. However, the application of single photons and hence true single photon sources comes along with sophisticated operation schemes and bulky device sizes, hindering their large-scale implementation. Offering a small device foot print and low power consumption, VCSELs represent an excellent candidate for a light source for satellite based QKD via the decoy state protocol. In this study we present recent results of an eight VCSEL array at an emission wavelength of 850 nm with integrated subwavelength polarization gratings for polarization control.

DOI
10.1117/12.3041979

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Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers the advantage of secure data communication based on the laws of physics. However, the application of single photons and hence true single photon sources comes along with sophisticated operation schemes and bulky device sizes, hindering their large-scale implementation. Offering a small device foot print and low power consumption, VCSELs represent an excellent candidate for a light source for satellite based QKD via the decoy state protocol. In this study we present recent results of an eight VCSEL array at an emission wavelength of 850 nm with integrated subwavelength polarization gratings for polarization control.
In recent years, the need for secure data communication has increased. Here, quantum key distribution (QKD) offers fundamental advantages over classical key distribution. Despite its high level of security, QKD comes a long with numerous challenges regarding the application of single photons. In this view, the decoy state protocol offers the possibility to implement QKD using classical light sources such as semiconductor lasers. In this contribution we present the newest results of our approach for the realization of a monolithic 850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array capable for QKD via the BB84 and decoy state protocol.
Quantum cryptography based on the application of single photons offers a secure communication based on the laws of physics. However, given the sophisticated and challenging implementation of true-single photon sources, the majority of implementations takes advantage of the decoy state protocol, which uses weak coherent pulses instead. For polarization-based protocols, a typical sender configuration includes one or multiple laser sources with external optical elements to realize four different polarization states and two intensity levels (signal and decoy). In this regard, the application of eight independent lasers with fixed polarization makes an external state preparation unnecessary and allows for a higher signal rate, while requiring otherwise identical optical properties of all laser devices such as wavelength and linewidth. Here, we demonstrate a solution on the basis of a compact, monolithic VCSEL array operating at room temperature. The array consists of eight VCSELs with integrated subwavelength gratings for polarization control. Orthogonal polarization suppression ratios (OPSRs) of up to 19.7 dB (19.1 dB) are reached for the rectilinear (diagonal) basis. By careful adjustment of the individual VCSEL's operating point, a wavelength matching of all VCSELs is achieved at an emission wavelength of 851.2 nm.
We report on a BB84 decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) system constructed using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. Four 794 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are current-modulated at 10 MHz rate with three power levels to form a decoy state transmitter. The COTS VCSELs exhibit long term stability with high polarization extinction ratio, narrow band operation (sub-nanometer bandwidth), and wavelength tunability and stability suitable for constructing four indistinguishable qubit channels. A 780 nm, 10 MHz time-transfer channel is used for transferring the timing information along with a start and end marker for the qubit transfer period. Internally-developed transmitter laser drivers and receiver detectors are controlled and read out with COTS system-on-chip (SoC) boards. We obtain a nominal bit-error-rate (BER) of ~4% for the system. We also report on the development of a synchronous (100 MHz) single photon detector for increasing the repetition rate of our QKD system. This work shows promise for building a COTS-based, small size, weight, and power hardware for space applications.
To date, only active-decoy-state methods have been adopted in current measurement-device-independent (MDI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols, causing security loopholes when modulating multiple light intensities with practical devices. To solve this problem, the passive-decoy-state method will be a good choice. Until today practical passive-decoy-state MDI QKD is still missing. In this paper, based on a recently discussed structure of heralded single-photon sources, we propose a passive-decoy-state MDI QKD protocol. In present work, one does not need to modulate light sources into different intensities, but utilizes the built-in local detection events to passively generate different decoy states. Furthermore, through carrying out an appropriate mathematical method, we are able to give very precise estimations for single-photon-pair contributions. As a result, our protocol can exhibit distinct advantages compared with state-of-the-art MDI QKD schemes even when the finite-key-size effect is taken into account. Therefore, our protocol seems a promising candidate to enhance both the security and performance of MDI QKD in practical implementation.
Global quantum secure communication can be achieved using quantum key distribution (QKD) with orbiting satellites. Established techniques use attenuated lasers as weak coherent pulse (WCP) sources, with so-called decoy-state protocols, to generate the required single-photon-level pulses. While such approaches are elegant, they come at the expense of attainable final key due to inherent multi-photon emission, thereby constraining secure key generation over the high-loss, noisy channels expected for satellite transmissions. In this work we improve on this limitation by using true single-photon pulses generated from a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) embedded in a nanowire, possessing low multi-photon emission (<10−6<10^{-6}<10−6) and an extraction system efficiency of -15 dB (or 3.1%). Despite the limited efficiency, the key generated by the QD source is greater than that generated by a WCP source under identical repetition rate and link conditions representative of a satellite pass. We predict that with realistic improvements of the QD extraction efficiency to -4.0 dB (or 40%), the quantum-dot QKD protocol outperforms WCP-decoy-state QKD by almost an order of magnitude. Consequently, a QD source could allow generation of a secure key in conditions where a WCP source would simply fail, such as in the case of high channel losses. Our demonstration is the first specific use case that shows a clear benefit for QD-based single-photon sources in secure quantum communication, and has the potential to enhance the viability and efficiency of satellite-based QKD networks.
To enable practical real-time quantum key distribution (QKD) over free-space links, such as for satellite-to-ground secure communications, the encoding rate of the system should be sufficiently high to distribute long keys (>106bits) in a short period of time (< 300 seconds) [1]. Here, we report an optical assembly and driving electronics designed to form a low-size}, weight and power (SWaP) QKD transmitter, which can operate at gigahertz clock rates. The QKD transmitter employs multiple vertical cavity surface emission lasers (VCSELs), which provide a low power and high polarization extinction ratio (PER) source of weak coherent pulses of light. These light pulses are combined using an intrinsically stable optical combining module utilising polarization-maintaining fiber. In the experiments presented we employ discrete variable QKD via the decoy-state BB84 protocol to achieve high secure key rates over large channel losses [2]. We characterise the source using a free-space polarization decoder over short free-space links within the laboratory and explore the performance of the system with commercially available single photon detectors. Fig. 1 Plot showing the effect of varying the channel loss over the free-space link. We show the measured quantum bit error rate (blue circles), sifting rate (green triangles) and secure key rate (red squares) alongside the rates simulated using the measured system parameters (solid lines). We characterise the system up to ~38 db of channel loss, revealing positive key rates at relatively high channel loss.