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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Quantum key distribution with a negatively charged quantum dot single-photon source

Parvendra Kumar

Published Apr 1, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Various quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols require bright single-photon sources with a very low probability of multiphoton emission. In this work, we investigate single-photon generation from a negatively charged quantum dot embedded in an elliptical pillar microcavity, driven by either resonant excitation or adiabatic rapid passage (ARP). Our results show that the ARP excitation significantly suppresses multiphoton emission and improves photon indistinguishability compared to resonant excitation. We further evaluate the secure key rates of both BB84 and twin-field QKD (TF-QKD) using a quantum-dot single-photon source and compare its performance with that of Poisson-distributed sources (PDS), such as weak coherent pulses. The analysis reveals that the ARP provides a modest but consistent enhancement in secure key rate relative to resonant excitation. We show that quantum-dot single-photon sources offer improved performance compared to PDS sources at short and intermediate distances within the chosen parameter regime; however, at longer distances, PDS sources slightly surpass them in both decoy-state BB84 and TF-QKD under the same conditions.

DOI
10.1364/josab.591734

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Optics Letters•Jan 7, 2026•1 citation
Various quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols require bright single-photon sources with a very low probability of multiphoton emission. In this work, we investigate single-photon generation from a negatively charged quantum dot embedded in an elliptical pillar microcavity, driven by either resonant excitation or adiabatic rapid passage (ARP). Our results show that the ARP excitation significantly suppresses multiphoton emission and improves photon indistinguishability compared to resonant excitation. We further evaluate the secure key rates of both BB84 and twin-field QKD (TF-QKD) using a quantum-dot single-photon source and compare its performance with that of Poisson-distributed sources (PDS), such as weak coherent pulses. The analysis reveals that the ARP provides a modest but consistent enhancement in secure key rate relative to resonant excitation. We show that quantum-dot single-photon sources offer improved performance compared to PDS sources at short and intermediate distances within the chosen parameter regime; however, at longer distances, PDS sources slightly surpass them in both decoy-state BB84 and TF-QKD under the same conditions.
Various quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols require bright single-photon sources with a very low probability of multiphoton emission. In this work, we investigate single-photon generation from a negatively charged quantum dot embedded in an elliptical pillar microcavity, driven by either resonant excitation or adiabatic rapid passage (ARP). Our results show that ARP excitation significantly suppresses multiphoton emission and improves photon indistinguishability compared to resonant excitation. We further evaluate the secure key rates of both BB84 and twin-field QKD (TF-QKD) using a quantum-dot single-photon source and compare its performance with that of Poisson-distributed sources (PDS), such as weak coherent pulses. The analysis reveals that ARP provides a modest but consistent enhancement in secure key rate relative to resonant excitation. We show that quantum-dot single-photon sources offer improved performance compared to PDS sources at short and intermediate distances within the chosen parameter regime; however, at longer distances, PDS sources slightly surpass them in both decoy-state BB84 and TF-QKD under the same conditions.
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.
We present the first demonstration of telecom fiber-based quantum key distribution using single photons from a quantum dot in a pillar microcavity. The source offers both telecommunication wavelength operation at 1.3 microns and Purcell enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate. Several emission lines from the InAs/GaAs quantum dot are identified, including the exciton-biexciton cascade and charged excitonic emission. We show an order of magnitude increase in the collected intensity of the emission from a charged excitonic state when temperature tuned onto resonance with the HE11 mode of the pillar microcavity, as compared to the off-resonance intensity. Above- and below-GaAs-bandgap optical excitation was used and the effect of the excitation energy on the photoluminescence investigated. Exciting below the GaAs-bandgap offers significant improvement in the quality of the single photon emission and a reduction of the multi-photon probability to 0.1 times the value for Poissonian light was measured, before subtraction of detector dark counts, the lowest value recorded to date for a quantum dot source at a fibre wavelength. We observe also the first evidence of Purcell enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate for a single telecommunication wavelength quantum dot in a pillar microcavity. We have incorporated the source into a phase encoded interferometric scheme implementing the BB84 quantum cryptography protocol and distributed a key, secure from the pulse splitting attack, over standard telecommunication optical fibre. We show a transmission distance advantage over that possible with (length-optimized) uniform intensity weak coherent pulses at 1310 nm in the same system.
Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution (MDI-QKD) enables secure communication without trusting the measurement devices, but its performance critically depends on the quality of the employed photon sources. We compare MDI-QKD implementations based on Weak Coherent Pulses (WCPs) with those employing Quantum Dot (QD) single-photon sources. WCP-based schemes are fundamentally limited by Poissonian photon-number statistics, imposing a trade-off between single- and multi-photon emissions, whereas QD sources exhibit sub-Poissonian statistics with low antibunching parameter g(2)(0)g^{(2)}(0)g(2)(0). Using a decoy-state analysis for both source types, we find that even at moderate mean photon numbers, QD-based implementations outperform the best-case WCP configuration - where the mean photon number is optimised at each transmission distance - across the full range of transmission distances. We further incorporate the effect of imperfect photon indistinguishability via Hong-Ou-Mandel interference visibilities into the security framework and demonstrate that both source types are highly sensitive to even small deviations from ideal indistinguishability, significantly affecting achievable key rates and maximum transmission distance.
We report the distribution of a cryptographic key, secure from photon number splitting attacks, over 35km of optical fiber using single photons from an InAs quantum dot emitting ∼1.3μm in a pillar microcavity. Using below GaAs-bandgap optical excitation, we demonstrate suppression of multiphoton emission to 10% of the Poissonian level without detector dark count subtraction. The source is incorporated into a phase encoded interferometric scheme implementing the BB84 protocol for key distribution over standard telecommunication optical fiber. We show a transmission distance advantage over that possible with (length-optimized) uniform intensity weak coherent pulses at 1310nm in the same system.
Photon-number superposition states are a valuable resource for quantum information processing and can be deterministically generated using advanced quantum-dot (QD) platforms. Here, we propose a twin-field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) protocol that employs photon-number superposition states of the form 1− t |0⟩+ e i ϕ t |1⟩. Numerical simulations show that the protocol outperforms existing laser-based TF-QKD schemes in secret-key rate and transmission distance, surpasses the repeaterless bound, enabling secure communication beyond 210 km under experimentally achievable conditions. A key advantage is its direct compatibility with existing QD technology. As integrated, solid-state, on-demand single-photon sources, QDs inherently provide high stability, scalability, and photon indistinguishability, making them well suited for deployment in large-scale quantum networks. Overall, our work demonstrates a practical pathway toward high-performance long-distance TF-QKD and highlights the broader potential of solid-state non-classical light sources for quantum networking architectures.