Experimental Demonstration of High-Rate Discrete-Modulated Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution System

A high-rate continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) system based on high-order discrete modulation is experimentally investigated. With the help of the novel system scheme, effective digital signal processing algorithms and advanced analytical security proof method, the transmission results of 5 km, 10 km, 25 km, and 50 km are achieved for the 1 GBaud optimized quantum signals. Correspondingly, the asymptotic secret key rate (SKR) is 288.421 Mbps, 159.395 Mbps, 50.004 Mbps and 7.579 Mbps for discrete Gaussian (DG) 64QAM, and 326.708 Mbps, 179.348 Mbps, 50.623 Mbps and 9.212 Mbps for DG 256QAM. Under the same parameters, the achieved SKRs of DG 256QAM is almost same to ideal Gaussian modulation. In this case, the demonstrated high-rate discrete modulated CV-QKD system has the application potential for high speed security communication under tens of kilometers.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Sub-Mbps key-rate continuous-variable quantum key distribution with local-local-oscillator over 100 km fiber

We experimentally demonstrated a sub-Mbps key rate Gaussian-modulated coherent-state continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) over 100 km transmission distance. To efficiently control the excess noise, the quantum signal and the pilot tone are co-transmitted in fiber channel based on wide-band frequency and polarization multiplexing methods. Furthermore, a high-accuracy data-assisted time domain equalization algorithm is carefully designed to compensate the phase noise and polarization variation in low signal-to-noise ratio. The asymptotic secure key rate (SKR) of the demonstrated CV-QKD is experimentally evaluated to be 10.36 Mbps, 2.59 Mbps, and 0.69 Mbps over transmission distance of 50 km, 75 km, and 100 km, respectively. The experimental demonstrated CV-QKD system significantly improves transmission distance and SKR compared to the state-of-art GMCS CV-QKD experimental results, and shows the potential for long-distance and high-speed secure quantum key distribution.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure

High-speed Gaussian modulated continuous-variable quantum key distribution with a local local oscillator based on pilot-tone-assisted phase compensation

A high-speed Gaussian modulated continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) with a local local oscillator (LLO) is experimentally demonstrated based on pilot-tone-assisted phase compensation. In the proposed scheme, the frequency-multiplexing and polarization-multiplexing techniques are used for the separate transmission and heterodyne detection between quantum signal and pilot tone, guaranteeing no crosstalk from strong pilot tone to weak quantum signal and different detection requirements of low-noise for quantum signal and high-saturation limitation for pilot tone. Moreover, compared with the conventional CVQKD based on homodyne detection, the proposed LLO-CVQKD scheme can measure X and P quadrature simultaneously using heterodyne detection without need of extra random basis selection. Besides, the phase noise, which contains the fast-drift phase noise due to the relative phase of two independent lasers and the slow-drift phase noise introduced by quantum channel disturbance, has been compensated experimentally in real time, so that a low level of excess noise with a 25km optical fiber channel is obtained for the achievable secure key rate of 7.04 Mbps in the asymptotic regime and 1.85 Mbps under the finite-size block of 10^7

Performance analysis for OFDM-based multi-carrier continuous-variable quantum key distribution with arbitrary modulation protocol

Multi-carrier continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) is considered to be a promising way to boost the secret key rate (SKR) over the existing single-carrier CV-QKD scheme. However, the extra excess noise induced in the imperfect multi-carrier quantum state preparation process of N subcarriers will limit the performance of the system. Here, a systematic modulation noise model is proposed for the multi-carrier CV-QKD based on the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Subsequently, the performance of multi-carrier CV-QKD with arbitrary modulation protocol (e.g. QPSK, 256QAM and Gaussian modulation protocol) can be quantitatively evaluated by combining the security analysis method of the single-carrier CV-QKD. Under practical system parameters, the simulation results show that the SKR of the multi-carrier CV-QKD can still be significantly improved by increasing the carrier number N even with imperfect practical modulations. Specifically, the total SKR of multi-carrier CV-QKD can be optimized by carefully choosing N. The proposed model provides a feasible theoretical framework for the future multi-carrier CV-QKD experimental implementation.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure

Polarization Attack on Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with a Local Local Oscillator

The estimation of phase noise of continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocol with a local local oscillator (LLO CVQKD), as a major process in quantifying the secret key rate, is closely relevant to the intensity of the phase reference. However, the transmission of the phase reference through the insecure quantum channel is prone to be exploited by the eavesdropper (Eve) to mount attacks. Here, we introduce a polarization attack scheme against the phase reference. Presently, in a practical LLO CVQKD system, only part of the phase reference pulses are measured to compensate for the polarization drift of the quantum signal pulses in a compensation cycle due to the limited polarization measurement rate, while the other part of the phase reference pulses are not measured. We show that Eve can control the phase noise by manipulating the polarization direction of the unmeasured phase reference to hide her attack on the quantum signal. Simulations show that Eve can obtain partial or total key rates information shared between Alice and Bob as the transmission distance increases. Improving the polarization measurement rate to 100% or monitoring the phase reference intensity in real-time is of great importance to protect the LLO CVQKD from polarization attack