Controlling a sine wave gating single-photon detector by exploiting its filtering loophole

GHz single-photon detector(SPD) is a crucial part in the practical high speed quantum key distribution(QKD) system.However, any imperfections in a practical QKD system may be exploited by an eavesdropper(Eve) to collect information about the key without being discovered. The sine wave gating SPD(SG-SPD) based on InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode,one kind of practical high speed SPD, may also contain loopholes. In this paper, we study the principle and characteristic of the SG-SPD and find out the filtering loophole of the SG-SPD for the first time. What is more, the proof-of-principle experiment shows that Eve could blind and control Bob's SG-SPD by exploiting this loophole. We believe that giving enough attention to this loophole can improve the practical security of the existing QKD system.