Decoy state quantum key distribution with two-way classical post-processing

Decoy states have recently been proposed as a useful method for substantially improving the performance of quantum key distribution protocols when a coherent state source is used. Previously, data post-processing schemes based on one-way classical communications were considered for use with decoy states. In this paper, we develop two data post-processing schemes for the decoy-state method using two-way classical communications. Our numerical simulation (using parameters from a specific QKD experiment as an example) results show that our scheme is able to extend the maximal secure distance from 142km (using only one-way classical communications with decoy states) to 181km. The second scheme is able to achieve a 10% greater key generation rate in the whole regime of distances

Postprocessing for quantum random number generators: entropy evaluation and randomness extraction

Quantum random-number generators (QRNGs) can offer a means to generate information-theoretically provable random numbers, in principle. In practice, unfortunately, the quantum randomness is inevitably mixed with classical randomness due to classical noises. To distill this quantum randomness, one needs to quantify the randomness of the source and apply a randomness extractor. Here, we propose a generic framework for evaluating quantum randomness of real-life QRNGs by min-entropy, and apply it to two different existing quantum random-number systems in the literature. Moreover, we provide a guideline of QRNG data postprocessing for which we implement two information-theoretically provable randomness extractors: Toeplitz-hashing extractor and Trevisan's extractor.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure