Quantum cryptography without detector vulnerabilities using optically-seeded lasers

Security in quantum cryptography is continuously challenged by inventive attacks targeting the real components of a cryptographic setup, and duly restored by new counter-measures to foil them. Due to their high sensitivity and complex design, detectors are the most frequently attacked components. Re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2015-10
Main Authors: Comandar, L C, Lucamarini, M, Fröhlich, B, Dynes, J F, Sharpe, A W, Tam, S, Yuan, Z L, Penty, R V, Shields, A J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cryptography
Data encryption
Detectors
Foils
Interference
Light sources
Pulsed lasers
Quantum cryptography
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Summary:Security in quantum cryptography is continuously challenged by inventive attacks targeting the real components of a cryptographic setup, and duly restored by new counter-measures to foil them. Due to their high sensitivity and complex design, detectors are the most frequently attacked components. Recently it was shown that two-photon interference from independent light sources can be exploited to avoid the use of detectors at the two ends of the communication channel. This new form of detection-safe quantum cryptography, called Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution (MDI-QKD), has been experimentally demonstrated, but with modest delivered key rates. Here we introduce a novel pulsed laser seeding technique to obtain high-visibility interference from gain-switched lasers and thereby perform quantum cryptography without detector vulnerabilities with unprecedented bit rates, in excess of 1 Mb/s. This represents a 2 to 6 orders of magnitude improvement over existing implementations and for the first time promotes the new scheme as a practical resource for quantum secure communications.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1509.08137