The Performance of Satellite-Based Links for Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocol has high practical value. Satellite-based links are useful to build long-distance quantum communication network. The model of satellite-based links for MDI-QKD was proposed but it lacks practicality. This work further analyzes the performance of it. First, MDI-QKD and satellite-based links model are introduced. Then considering the operation of the satellite the performance of their combination is studied under different weather conditions. The results may provide important references for combination of optical-fiber-based links on the ground and satellite-based links in space, which is helpful for large-scale quantum communication network.     

Practical Reference-Frame-Independent Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution Systems Against the Worst Relative Rotation of Reference Frames

Reference-frame-independent measurement-device-independent QKD (RFI-MDI-QKD), immune to both the slow unknown drift of reference frames and detector side channel attacks, can generate information-theoretic secure keys. Despite its natural resistance to the slow drift of reference frames, the performance of practical RFI-MDI-QKD systems descends with the increasing drift of reference frames. In this paper, we demonstrate the worst relative rotation of reference frames for practical RFI-MDI-QKD systems, and investigate their performance against the worst-case scenario, both of which are unclear to date. Simulation results show that, practical RFI-MDI-QKD systems can achieve quite good performance even against the worst-case scenario, which clearly demonstrates that it is possible to implement practical MDI-QKD systems with freely drifting reference frames.     

奇相干光源的测量设备无关量子密钥分配研究

刻画了奇相干光源的光子数分布特征,研究了奇相干光源下诱骗态测量设备无关量子密钥分配系统的密钥生成率与安全传输距离的关系,推导了奇相干光源下的计数率下界和误码率上界.仿真结果表明,奇相干光源光子数分布中多光子脉冲的比例低于弱相干光,可以有效提高诱骗态测量设备无关密钥分配系统的最大安全通信距离,为实用的量子密钥分配实验提供了重要的理论参数.     

Simultaneous two-way classical communication and measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution on oceanic quantum channels

Simultaneous two-way classical and quantum (STCQ) communication combines both continuous classical coherent optical communication and continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD), which eliminates all detection-related imperfections by being measurement-device-independent (MDI). In this paper, we propose a protocol relying on STCQ communication on the oceanic quantum channel, in which the superposition-modulation-based coherent states depend on the information bits of both the secret key and the classical communication ciphertext. We analyse the encoding combination in classical communication and consider the probability distribution transmittance under seawater turbulence with various interference factors. Our numerical simulations of various practical scenarios demonstrate that the proposed protocol can simultaneously enable two-way classical communication and CV-MDI QKD with just a slight performance degradation transmission distance compared to the original CV-MDI QKD scheme. Moreover, the asymmetric situation outperforms the symmetric case in terms of transmission distance and optical modulation variance. We further take into consideration the impact of finite-size effects to illustrate the applicability of the proposed scheme in practical scenarios. The results show the feasibility of the underwater STCQ scheme, which contributes toward developing a global quantum communication network in free space.     

Sender-controlled measurement-device-independent multiparty quantum communication

Multiparty quantum communication is an important branch of quantum networks. It enables private information transmission with information-theoretic security among legitimate parties. We propose a sender-controlled measurement-device-independent multiparty quantum communication protocol. The sender Alice divides a private message into several parts and delivers them to different receivers for secret sharing with imperfect measurement devices and untrusted ancillary nodes. Furthermore, Alice acts as an active controller and checks the security of quantum channels and the reliability of each receiver before she encodes her private message for secret sharing, which makes the protocol convenient for multiparity quantum communication.     

基于弱相干光源测量设备无关量子密钥分发系统的误码率分析

测量设备无关量子密钥分发系统可以免疫任何针对探测器边信道的攻击, 并进一步结合诱惑态方法规避了准单光子源引入的实际安全性问题. 目前实验中一般采用弱相干光源, 但是该光源含有一定比例的空脉冲和多光子脉冲. 本文针对弱相干光源的具体特性, 采用量子力学的描述, 将各个器件进行量子化处理, 并同时考虑探测器的具体性能参数的影响, 分别给出了通信双方各自发送的脉冲含有特定光子数时产生的成功贝尔态和错误贝尔态的概率公式, 从理论上对相位编码和偏振编码测量设备无关量子密钥分发系统的误码率进行了定量分析, 分别推导并模拟了通信双方采用的平均光子数对称和不对称时误码率随传输距离的变化情况, 结果表明在偏振编码Z基中, 多光子脉冲不会引起误码; 在偏振编码X基和相位编码中, 受多光子影响, 产生的误码率较大. 对于不同的编码方式, 误码率均随传输距离的增加有不同程度的升高, 长距离传输时, 平均光子数越小, 产生的误码率越大; 在偏振编码X基和相位编码的短距离传输中, 相对于对称, 通信双方采用的平均光子数不对称时产生的误码率较大.     

Simultaneous measurement-device-independent continuous variable quantum key distribution with realistic detector compensation

We propose a novel scheme for measurement-device-independent (MDI) continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) by simultaneously conducting classical communication and QKD, which is called “simultaneous MDI-CVQKD” protocol. In such protocol, each sender (Alice, Bob) can superimpose random numbers for QKD on classical information by taking advantage of the same weak coherent pulse and an untrusted third party (Charlie) decodes it by using the same coherent detectors, which could be appealing in practice due to that multiple purposes can be realized by employing only single communication system. What is more, the proposed protocol is MDI, which is immune to all possible side-channel attacks on practical detectors. Security results illustrate that the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can secure against arbitrary collective attacks. In addition, we employ phasesensitive optical amplifiers to compensate the imperfection existing in practical detectors. With this technology, even common practical detectors can be used for detection through choosing a suitable optical amplifier gain. Furthermore, we also take the finite-size effect into consideration and show that the whole raw keys can be taken advantage of to generate the final secret key instead of sacrificing part of them for parameter estimation. Therefore, an enhanced performance of the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can be obtained in finite-size regime.     

Measurement-device-independent one-step quantum secure direct communication

The one-step quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) (Sci. Bull. 67, 367 (2022)) can effectively simplify QSDC's operation and reduce message loss. For enhancing its security under practical experimental condition, we propose two measurement-device-independent (MDI) one-step QSDC protocols, which can resist all possible attacks from imperfect measurement devices. In both protocols, the communication parties prepare identical polarization-spatial-mode two-photon hyperentangled states and construct the hyperentanglement channel by hyperentanglement swapping. The first MDI one-step QSDC protocol adopts the nonlinear-optical complete hyperentanglement Bell state measurement (HBSM) to construct the hyperentanglement channel, while the second protocol adopts the linear-optical partial HBSM. Then, the parties encode the photons in the polarization degree of freedom and send them to the third party for the hyperentanglement-assisted complete polarization Bell state measurement. Both protocols are unconditionally secure in theory. The simulation results show the MDI one-step QSDC protocol with complete HBSM attains the maximal communication distance of about 354 km. Our MDI one-step QSDC protocols may have potential applications in the future quantum secure communication field.     

Hong–Ou–Mandel interference with two independent weak coherent states

Recently,the Hong-Ou-Mandel(HOM) interference between two independent weak coherent pulses(WCPs) has been paid much attention due to the measurement-device-independent(MDI) quantum key distribution(QKD).Using classical wave theory,articles reported before show that the visibility of this kind of HOM-type interference is ≤ 50%.In this work,we analyze this kind of interference using quantum optics,which reveals more details compared to the wave theory.Analyses confirm the maximum visibility of 50%.And we conclude that the maximum visibility of 50%comes from the two single-photon states in WCPs,without considering the noise.In the experiment,we successfully approach the visibility of 50%by using WCPs splitting from the single pico-second laser source and phase scanning.Since this kind of HOM interference is immune to slow phase fluctuations,both the realized and proposed experiment designs can provide stable ways of high-resolution optical distance detection.     

Tomographic Approach in Reference-Frame-Independent Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution

Recently, a novel reference-frame-independent measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution protocol was proposed, which can remove all detector side channels as well as tolerate unknown and slow variance of reference frame without active alignment. In this paper, we propose a new tomographic method to estimate the key rate in that protocol. We estimate the key rate using conventional method and tomographic method respectively and compare the two methods by numerical simulation. The numerical simulation results show that tomographic approach is equivalent to the conventional approach, which can be used as an alternative method.