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arXiv:quant-ph/0106007 · Journal of Modern Optics

Photon counting for quantum key distribution with Peltier cooled InGaAs/InP APDs

Damien Stucki, G. Ribordy, André Stefanov, Hugo Zbinden, John Rarity, Tom Wall

Published Nov 1, 2001• 159 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The performance of three types of InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes is investigated for photon counting at 1550 nm in the temperature range of thermoelectric cooling. The best one yields a dark count probability of 2.8 × 10−5 per gate (2.4 ns) at a detection efficiency of 10% and a temperature of -60°C. The afterpulse probability and the timing jitter are also studied. The results obtained are compared with those of other papers and applied to the simulation of a quantum key distribution system. An error rate of 10% would be obtained after 54 km.

DOI
10.1080/09500340108240900

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The performance of three types of InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes is investigated for photon counting at 1550 nm in the temperature range of thermoelectric cooling. The best one yields a dark count probability of 2.8 × 10−5 per gate (2.4 ns) at a detection efficiency of 10% and a temperature of -60°C. The afterpulse probability and the timing jitter are also studied. The results obtained are compared with those of other papers and applied to the simulation of a quantum key distribution system. An error rate of 10% would be obtained after 54 km.
Using InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes as sensors and coaxial cables as reflection lines to reject spike signals, we have firstly employed the ``timing filtering'' gates to pick out avalanche signals and have realized the single photon detection at 1550 nm in the temperature range of thermoelectric cooling. A ratio of the dark count rate to the detection efficiency was obtained to be 9 × 10 −5 at 223 K. When the detector is applied to a practical quantum key distribution system, the transmission distance can reach 89.5 km and the repetition rate can reach 0.33 MHz.
A brief overview is given of single photon detector performance requirements for quantum cryptography applications. The analysis is made with respect to restrictions necessary to secure the quantum key distribution channel. InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode performance is analysed for single photon counting at 1550 nm. Quantum efficiency, dark current and afterpulsing probability (for times up to 100μs after an initial avalanche) are studied in a wider temperature range than previously reported (0deg; C to –80deg;C). We show that photon counting is a bottle-neck in current quantum key distribution systems and provides the source for future performance improvement.
In our recent experiment, we have designed a novel single-photon detecting module for quantum key distribution using an InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode with gate-mode quenched photo-detection. At a repetition rate of 100 kHz and the working temperature of -60°C, we obtained the detection efficiency η higher than 10% and 20% at the dark probability Pd about 1.3×10-5 and 1.6×10-5 per nanosecond, respectively. Also at 100 kHz, we got the best ratio of Pd/η as 1.7×10-3 per pulse (20 ns). And at a lower repetition such as 10 kHz, we obtained Pd/η as 8.9×10-4 per pulse.
We have demonstrated quantum key distribution (QKD) over 100 km using single-photon detectors based on InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes (APDs). We implemented the differential phase shift QKD (DPS-QKD) protocol with electrically cooled and 2-GHz sinusoidally gated APDs. The single-photon detector has a dark count probability of 2.8 × 10(-8) (55 counts per second) with a detection efficiency of 6 %, which enabled us to achieve 24 kbit/s secure key rate over 100 km of optical fiber. The DPS-QKD system offers better performances in a practical way than those achieved using superconducting single-photon detectors. Moreover, the distance that secure keys against the general individual attacks can be distributed has been extended to 160 km.
The application of quantum key distribution (QKD) has raised particular demands for single-photon detectors. One of the most promising candidates at the low-loss optical fibre communications windows is the planar geometry InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diode. These detectors have been modelled, fabricated and characterised at 1.55 µm wavelength. Their performance in terms of single-photon detection efficiency, dark count rate, timing jitter and afterpulsing behaviour are reported and compared with the best commercially available, linear multiplication avalanche photodiodes operated in Geiger-mode. Their use in the application of QKD is discussed.