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Provably secure and high-rate quantum key distribution with time-bin qudits
- Source :
- Science Advances
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Information encoded in high-dimensional quantum states can achieve ultrahigh rates over metropolitan distances.<br />The security of conventional cryptography systems is threatened in the forthcoming era of quantum computers. Quantum key distribution (QKD) features fundamentally proven security and offers a promising option for quantum-proof cryptography solution. Although prototype QKD systems over optical fiber have been demonstrated over the years, the key generation rates remain several orders of magnitude lower than current classical communication systems. In an effort toward a commercially viable QKD system with improved key generation rates, we developed a discrete-variable QKD system based on time-bin quantum photonic states that can generate provably secure cryptographic keys at megabit-per-second rates over metropolitan distances. We use high-dimensional quantum states that transmit more than one secret bit per received photon, alleviating detector saturation effects in the superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors used in our system that feature very high detection efficiency (of more than 70%) and low timing jitter (of less than 40 ps). Our system is constructed using commercial off-the-shelf components, and the adopted protocol can be readily extended to free-space quantum channels. The security analysis adopted to distill the keys ensures that the demonstrated protocol is robust against coherent attacks, finite-size effects, and a broad class of experimental imperfections identified in our system.
- Subjects :
- Computer science
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
FOS: Physical sciences
Physics::Optics
Cryptography
Quantum key distribution
Communications system
Computer security
computer.software_genre
01 natural sciences
010309 optics
Quantum state
0103 physical sciences
Electronic engineering
010306 general physics
Computer Science::Databases
Research Articles
Computer Science::Cryptography and Security
Quantum computer
Quantum Physics
Quantum network
Key generation
Multidisciplinary
business.industry
Physics
SciAdv r-articles
Quantum cryptography
Applied Sciences and Engineering
Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
business
computer
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 23752548
- Volume :
- 3
- Issue :
- 11
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Science advances
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....195aae68430a18b89632ee30f79b8a78