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arXiv:quant-ph/0402110 · New Journal of Physics

Experimental open-air quantum key distribution with a single-photon source

Romain Alléaume, François Treussart, Gaétan Messin, Yannick Dumeige, Jean-François Roch, A. Beveratos, Rosa Tualle-Brouri, J.-Ph. Poizat, Philippe Grangier

Published Jul 30, 2004• 115 citations
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Abstract

We describe the implementation of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system using a single-photon source, operating at night in open air. The single-photon source at the heart of the functional and reliable set-up relies on the pulsed excitation of a single nitrogen-vacancy colour centre in a diamond nanocrystal. We tested the effect of attenuation on the polarized encoded photons for inferring the longer distance performance of our system. For strong attenuation, the use of pure single-photon states gives measurable advantage over systems relying on weak attenuated laser pulses. The results are in good agreement with theoretical models developed to assess QKD security.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/6/1/092

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We describe the implementation of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system using a single-photon source, operating at night in open air. The single-photon source at the heart of the functional and reliable set-up relies on the pulsed excitation of a single nitrogen-vacancy colour centre in a diamond nanocrystal. We tested the effect of attenuation on the polarized encoded photons for inferring the longer distance performance of our system. For strong attenuation, the use of pure single-photon states gives measurable advantage over systems relying on weak attenuated laser pulses. The results are in good agreement with theoretical models developed to assess QKD security.
We present a full implementation of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system with a single photon source, operating at night in open air. The single photon source at the heart of the functional and reliable setup relies on the pulsed excitation of a single nitrogen-vacancy color center in diamond nanocrystal. We tested the effect of attenuation on the polarized encoded photons for inferring longer distance performance of our system. For strong attenuation, the use of pure single photon states gives measurable advantage over systems relying on weak attenuated laser pulses. The results are in good agreement with theoretical models developed to assess QKD security.
We report the full implementation of a quantum cryptography protocol using a stream of single photon pulses generated by a stable and efficient source operating at room temperature. The single photon pulses are emitted on demand by a single nitrogen-vacancy color center in a diamond nanocrystal. The quantum bit error rate is less that 4.6% and the secure bit rate is 7700 bits/s. The overall performances of our system reaches a domain where single photons have a measurable advantage over an equivalent system based on attenuated light pulses.
We report the realization of a solid-state triggered single-photon source with narrow emission in the near infrared at room temperature. It is based on the photoluminescence of a single nickel–nitrogen NE8 colour centre in a chemical vapour deposited diamond nanocrystal. Stable single-photon emission has been observed in the photoluminescence under both continuous-wave and pulsed excitations. The realization of this source represents a step forward in the application of diamond-based single-photon sources to quantum key distribution (QKD) under practical operating conditions.
The nanodiamond technology has developed the first packaged, single-photon source that operates at room temperature and in well-lit environments, where an ideal single-photon source produces one photon per pulse. These sources are key components for building quantum information systems that can implement quantum-key distribution (QKD) for ultrasecure communications. The optically active color centers in diamond have been found to exhibit attractive optical properties through the nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) center emission ranging 600 to 750 nm, and that have realized the practical sources of single-photon emission. Photo statistics has to be determined to measure the performance of a single-photon source, which can be measured by the autocorrelation function g2 (0) using Hanbury-Brown and Twiss interferometer. The results showed that the SPS 1.01 demonstrates stable single-photon performance without requirement of recalibration.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows the distribution of cryptographic keys between multiple users in an information-theoretic secure way, exploiting quantum physics. While current QKD systems are mainly based on attenuated laser pulses, deterministic single-photon sources could give concrete advantages in terms of secret key rate (SKR) and security owing to the negligible probability of multi-photon events. Here, we introduce and demonstrate a proof-of-concept QKD system exploiting a molecule-based single-photon source operating at room temperature and emitting at 785 nm. With an estimated maximum SKR of 0.5 Mbps, our solution paves the way for room-temperature single-photon sources for quantum communication protocols.