Influence of light source linewidth in differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution systems

Differential-phase-shift (DPS) quantum key distribution (QKD) is one of the QKD protocols, featuring simplicity for practical implementation. It uses a coherent pulse train whose phase should be stable at least within the pulse interval. This paper quantitatively investigates the phase stability required for DPS-QKD systems. The phase stability is characterized by the spectral linewidth of the light source. A theoretical model and experiments are presented, the results of which indicate that the linewidth should be, for example, less than 0.35% of the free-spectral-range of an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer in a receiver to achieve quantum bit error rate of less than 0.5% due to linewidth broadening of the light source.     

Impact of spontaneous Raman scattering on quantum channel wavelength-multiplexed with classical channel in time domain

In the quantum key distribution system, quantum channel is always affected by spontaneous Raman scattering noise when it transmits with classical channels that act as synchronization and data channels on a shared fiber. To study the effect of the noise exactly, the temporal distribution characteristics of the Raman scattering noise are analyzed theoretically and measured by a single-photon detector. On the basis of this, a scheme to decrease the noise is proposed.     

Electron Raman scattering of a hydrogenic impurity in a disc-shaped quantum dot

We have carried out the theoretical calculation of the differential cross section for the electron Raman scattering process associated with a hydrogenic impurity in a disc-shaped quantum dot (QD). We consider the impurity states confined in a disc-shaped QD with parabolic potential in the presence of an external electric field. Effects of the electric field and the confinement strength on the differential cross section are investigated. We make a comparison about the Raman intensity between with and without the Coulomb interaction. We found that the differential cross section of the hydrogenic impurity in a disc-shaped QD dependent strongly on the confinement strength, the external electric field intensity and the Coulomb interaction.     

Electric field effect on the Raman scattering of a hydrogenic impurity in spherical quantum dot

Using the perturbation method and the effective mass approximation, we studied the combined effects of impurity and external electric field on Raman scattering in a spherical quantum dot with a parabolic potential. Based on the computed energies and wave functions, the differential cross-section involved in this process is investigated, and the selection rules are also calculated. Our results suggest that the scattering intensity is strongly affected by the impurity and external electric field considered in this work.     

Stimulated Raman scattering and spontaneous Raman solitons in ammonia

In this study we report the first observation of spontaneous Raman solitons in stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) by the gas NH₃. The scattered radiation is called Stokes radiation. Raman solitons are of considerable interest, because their existence can be explained by quantum-mechanical fluctuations of the electromagnetic field in vacuum. We have observed spontaneous Raman solitons in a forward SRS configuration for two different molecular transitions of NH₃, the laser emissions at 58 μm and 72.6 μm wavelength. These are optically pumped by 10 μm CO₂-laser pulses with a duration of 100 ns and an energy of 150 mJ. Spontaneous Raman solitons are short spikes in the pump pulse which occur during its depletion. Their origin is the rapid π phase change of the Stokes seed. In contrast to other laboratories we have used single-pass cells. Thus, we have succeeded in observing multiple spontaneous Raman solitons during one pump pulse. Previous experiments with multi-pass cells never showed multiple solitons. Since multiple spontaneous Raman solitons have already been reported in an earlier experiment with a single-pass cell filled with hydrogen at high pressure, we conclude that such multiple Raman solitons can be observed mainly in this type of gas cell. Subsequently, we have performed statistical measurements on the delay time and the height of the spontaneous Raman solitons in the depleted pump pulse for the 58 μm-NH₃ emission. We have compared these statistics with theory and equivalent experimental results of other laboratories. They are in good agreement with the assumption that quantum-mechanical fluctuations are the origin of spontaneous Raman solitons. The most recent theories postulate that the origin of the formation of spontaneous Raman solitons can be explained by the rapid π phase change of the Stokes seed as well as that of the laser or polarization wave. Therefore, we have determined the phase of the spontaneous Raman solitons relative to the depleted pump pulse. Although, such changes of sign of the relative phase have already been observed in an earlier SRS experiment with hydrogen at high pressure, we did not detect any in our experiment. Therefore, we conclude that in this experiment the π phase change occurs in the Stokes or polarization wave.     

Electron Raman scattering of a two-dimensional pseudodot system

We have carried out the theoretical investigation of the differential cross section for the electron Raman scattering process, which is associated with intersubband transitions in a two-dimensional quantum pseudodot system. The great advantage of our methodology is that it enables confinement regimes by varying two parameters in the model potential. It is found that the differential cross section is affected by the external magnetic field, the geometrical size and the chemical potential of the pseudodot system.     

Nonorthogonal unitaries in two-way quantum key distribution

Two-way Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) schemes commonly make use of a set of unitaries corresponding to binary encodings which can in principle be distinguished perfectly. In this paper, inline with the proposal in Chiribella et al. (2008) [13], we introduce a non-entangled two-way QKD scheme with two sets of unitaries of which the elements in one set can be viewed as ‘nonorthogonal’ to elements in the other with the aim of naturally suppressing an eavesdropper's information to provide for a higher security threshold. Security analysis is done in the context of individual attack strategies for a quick comparison with the conventional two-way QKD scheme. Given the richer structure of the improvement, future direction is also discussed.     

Improved two-way six-state protocol for quantum key distribution

A generalized version for a qubit based two-way quantum key distribution scheme was first proposed in the paper [Phys. Lett. A 358 (2006) 85] capitalizing on the six quantum states derived from three mutually unbiased bases. While boasting of a higher level of security, the protocol was not designed for ease of practical implementation. In this work, we propose modifications to the protocol, resulting not only in improved security but also in a more efficient and practical setup. We provide comparisons for calculated secure key rates for the protocols in noisy and lossy channels.     

The hydrostatic pressure and temperature effects on Raman scattering of a hydrogenic impurity in a disc-shaped quantum dot

Using the perturbation method and the effective-mass approximation, we studied the combined effects of hydrostatic pressure and temperature on Raman scattering in a disc-shaped quantum dot with a parabolic potential in the presence of an electric field. The differential cross-section involved in this process is calculated. Numerical calculations on a typical GaAs quantum dot are performed. The results show that not only the impurity but also the temperature and the hydrostatic pressure have an influence on the differential cross-section of the system.     

静压下(CdTe)_2(ZnTe)_4-ZnTe多量子阱结构的多声子共振拉曼散射

用加静高压的方法改变光学能隙来实现共振条件。在以(CdTe)_2(ZnTe)_4短周期超晶格为阱层,(ZnTe)_(4)为垒层的多量子阱结构中观察到高达四阶的类 ZnTe 纵光学声子模的多声子共振拉曼散射。通过对拉曼位移随压力变化的分析,发现在与(CdTe)_2(ZnTe)_4短周期超晶格共振时测得的类ZnTe 纵光学声子模的频率比与 ZnTe 势垒层共振时测得的 ZnTe 纵光学声子模的频率低4cm~(-1)。并将它归结为在短周期超品格中纵光学声子模的限制效应。在与短周期超品格严格的2LO 声子出射共振条件下观察到了类 CdTe 的2LO 声子的共振拉曼峰。     

Independent attacks in imperfect settings: A case for a two-way quantum key distribution scheme

We review the study on a two-way quantum key distribution protocol given imperfect settings through a simple analysis of a toy model and show that it can outperform a BB84 setup. We provide the sufficient condition for this as a ratio of optimal intensities for the protocols.     

Electronic Raman scattering in double semi-parabolic quantum wells

The differential cross-section for electronic Raman scattering in double semi-parabolic quantum wells of typical GaAs/AlxGa1-x As is investigated numerically with the effective-mass approximation. The dependence of the differential cross-section on structural parameters such as the barrier width and the well widths is studied. Our results indicate that the electronic Raman scattering is affected by the geometrical size and can be negligible in the symmetric double-well case.     

Raman study of Si–Ge intermixing in Ge quantum rings and dots

The Ge/Si (1 0 0) nanostructures have been studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Micro Raman optical spectroscopy. Two layers of Ge of total thickness 0.75 nm and Si cap with thickness 2.5 nm were deposited by the method of molecular beam epitaxy at the temperature range 640–700 °C. AFM shows both quantum dots and ring-shape Ge nanostructures. From the analysis of the intensity and energy shift of the Raman signal we have found that the average concentration of Ge decreases considerably from 44% to 27%, when the growth temperature increases, whereas the degree of strain relaxation remains roughly the same. This allows us to conclude that intermixing is a dominating mechanism for strain relaxation in processes of transformation of Ge quantum dots to quantum rings.     

One phonon resonant Raman scattering in a quantized spherical film

We have presented a theoretical calculation of the differential cross section (DCS) for the electron Raman scattering (ERS) process associated with surface optical (SO) phonon modes in a semiconductor quantized spherical film. We consider the Fröhlich electron–phonon interaction in the framework of the dielectric continuum approach. We study the selection rules for the processes. Singularities are found to be size-dependent and by varying the size of the QDs, it is possible to control the frequency shift in the Raman spectrum. A discussion of the phonon behavior for the films with large and small size is presented. The numerical results are also compared with that of experiments.     

Sagnac quantum key distribution over telecom fiber networks

We present a new concept for compensation of single mode fiber (SMF) birefringence effects in a Sagnac quantum key distribution (QKD) setup, based on a polarization control system and a polarization insensitive phase modulator. Our experimental data show stable (in regards to birefringence drift) QKD over 1550 nm SMF telecom networks in Sagnac configuration, using the BB84-protocol [C.H. Bennett, G. Brassard, in: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computers, Systems, and Signal Processing, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, New York, 1984, p. 175] with phase encoding. The achieved total Sagnac transmission loop distances were between 100 km and 150 km with quantum bit error rates (QBER) between 5.84% and 9.79% for the mean-photon-number μ = 0.1. The distances were much longer and rates much higher than in any other published Sagnac QKD experiments. We also show an example of our one-decoy state protocol implementations (for the 45 km distance between Alice and Bob, corresponding to the 130 km total Sagnac loop length), providing an unconditional QKD security. The measurement results have showed feasibility of QKD over telecom fiber networks in Sagnac configuration, using standard fiber telecom components.     

Comment on “N quantum channel are sufficient for multi-user quantum key distribution protocol between n users”

This study points out that a malicious gateway in Hong et al.'s multi-user quantum key distribution protocol [Optics Communication 283 (2010) 2644] may be able to reveal the secret key of the protocol without being detected. An improvement is suggested to avoid the weakness.     

Spectra of spontaneous Raman scattering in taper-drawn micro/nano-fibers

We study the spontaneous Raman scattering(RS) in taper-drawn micro/nano-fibers(MNFs) by employing the photon counting technique. The spectra of RS in five MNFs, which are fabricated by using different heating flames(hydrogen flame or butane flame) and with different diameters, are measured within a frequency shift range of 1435 cm~(-1)–3200 cm~(-1).From the measured spectra, we observe the RS peaks originated from silica and a unique RS peak with a frequency shift of ~ 2905 cm~(-1)(~ 87.2 THz). Unlike the former ones, the latter one is not observable in conventional optical fibers.Furthermore, the unique peak becomes obvious and starts to rapidly increase with the decrease of the diameter of MNFs when the diameter is smaller than 2 μm, and the intensity of the unique peak significantly depends on the heating flame used in the fabricating process. Our investigation is useful for the entanglement generation or optical sensing using taper-drawn MNFs.     

Triggered single-photon emission and cross-correlation properties in InAlAs quantum dot

Triggered single-photon generation from InAlAs quantum dot (QD) was demonstrated for the first time. Emitted photon energy coincides with high detection efficiency range of Si single-photon detectors, which is highly suitable for free-space communication. Single-QD spectroscopy and crossed photon correlation measurements unambiguously revealed that several emitting lines observed in a single mesa structure originated from the identical QD, and two temporary competing decay processes associated with neutral states and charged states were identified. Presence of the competing process is also inferred from an analysis of steady-state photoluminescence intensities. Formation process of charged exciton in QD is also discussed.