Demonstration of a 6 state-4 state reference frame independent channel for quantum key distribution

We study a reference frame independent (RFI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol using six states for Alice and only four states for Bob, while previous RFI protocols require a six state analyzer for Bob. Our protocol can generate a secure key for any possible phase of the entangled state provid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2019-11, Vol.115 (21)
Main Authors: Tannous, Ramy, Ye, Zhangdong, Jin, Jeongwan, Kuntz, Katanya B., Lütkenhaus, Norbert, Jennewein, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Entangled states
Protocol
Quantum cryptography
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Summary:We study a reference frame independent (RFI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol using six states for Alice and only four states for Bob, while previous RFI protocols require a six state analyzer for Bob. Our protocol can generate a secure key for any possible phase of the entangled state provided the variation is small compared to the measurement rate, as shown by our numerical key rate analysis. We perform a proof-of-principle experiment using polarization entangled photon pairs. In the presence of a varying rotational phase, we obtain a consistently low error rate of less than 4%, indicating the feasibility of this protocol for QKD. Our RFI protocol is hence beneficial but not limited to applications in a satellite or mobile free-space QKD, where a communication node must limit the resources and restrict the number of measured states to four instead of six.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.5125700