346 research outputs found
Efficient generation of tunable photon pairs at 0.8 and 1.6 micrometer
We demonstrate efficient generation of collinearly propagating, highly
nondegenerate photon pairs in a periodically-poled lithium niobate cw
parametric downconverter with an inferred pair generation rate of 1.4*10^7/s/mW
of pump power. Detection of an 800-nm signal photon triggers a
thermoelectrically-cooled 20%-efficient InGaAs avalanche photodiode for the
detection of the 1600-nm conjugate idler photon. Using single-mode fibers as
spatial mode filters, we obtain a signal-conditioned idler-detection
probability of about 3.1%.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Quantum Cryptography using larger alphabets
Like all of quantum information theory, quantum cryptography is traditionally
based on two level quantum systems. In this letter, a new protocol for quantum
key distribution based on higher dimensional systems is presented. An
experimental realization using an interferometric setup is also proposed.
Analyzing this protocol from the practical side, one finds an increased key
creation rate while keeping the initial laser pulse rate constant. Analyzing it
for the case of intercept/resend eavesdropping strategy, an increased error
rate is found compared to two dimensional systems, hence an advantage for the
legitimate users to detect an eavesdropper.Comment: 12 pages, 2 (eps) figure
Controlled Quantum Secret Sharing
We present a new protocol in which a secret multiqubit quantum state
is shared by players and controllers, where
is the encoding state of a quantum secret sharing scheme. The players may be
considered as field agents responsible for carrying out a task, using the
secret information encrypted in , while the controllers are
superiors who decide if and when the task should be carried out and who to do
it. Our protocol only requires ancillary Bell states and Bell-basis
measurements.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figure, RevTeX4; published version with minor change
Using quantum key distribution for cryptographic purposes: a survey
The appealing feature of quantum key distribution (QKD), from a cryptographic
viewpoint, is the ability to prove the information-theoretic security (ITS) of
the established keys. As a key establishment primitive, QKD however does not
provide a standalone security service in its own: the secret keys established
by QKD are in general then used by a subsequent cryptographic applications for
which the requirements, the context of use and the security properties can
vary. It is therefore important, in the perspective of integrating QKD in
security infrastructures, to analyze how QKD can be combined with other
cryptographic primitives. The purpose of this survey article, which is mostly
centered on European research results, is to contribute to such an analysis. We
first review and compare the properties of the existing key establishment
techniques, QKD being one of them. We then study more specifically two generic
scenarios related to the practical use of QKD in cryptographic infrastructures:
1) using QKD as a key renewal technique for a symmetric cipher over a
point-to-point link; 2) using QKD in a network containing many users with the
objective of offering any-to-any key establishment service. We discuss the
constraints as well as the potential interest of using QKD in these contexts.
We finally give an overview of challenges relative to the development of QKD
technology that also constitute potential avenues for cryptographic research.Comment: Revised version of the SECOQC White Paper. Published in the special
issue on QKD of TCS, Theoretical Computer Science (2014), pp. 62-8
Linking Classical and Quantum Key Agreement: Is There "Bound Information"?
After carrying out a protocol for quantum key agreement over a noisy quantum
channel, the parties Alice and Bob must process the raw key in order to end up
with identical keys about which the adversary has virtually no information. In
principle, both classical and quantum protocols can be used for this
processing. It is a natural question which type of protocols is more powerful.
We prove for general states but under the assumption of incoherent
eavesdropping that Alice and Bob share some so-called intrinsic information in
their classical random variables, resulting from optimal measurements, if and
only if the parties' quantum systems are entangled. In addition, we provide
evidence that the potentials of classical and of quantum protocols are equal in
every situation. Consequently, many techniques and results from quantum
information theory directly apply to problems in classical information theory,
and vice versa. For instance, it was previously believed that two parties can
carry out unconditionally secure key agreement as long as they share some
intrinsic information in the adversary's view. The analysis of this purely
classical problem from the quantum information-theoretic viewpoint shows that
this is true in the binary case, but false in general. More explicitly, bound
entanglement, i.e., entanglement that cannot be purified by any quantum
protocol, has a classical counterpart. This "bound intrinsic information"
cannot be distilled to a secret key by any classical protocol. As another
application we propose a measure for entanglement based on classical
information-theoretic quantities.Comment: Accepted for Crypto 2000. 17 page
Security against individual attacks for realistic quantum key distribution
I prove the security of quantum key distribution against individual attacks
for realistic signals sources, including weak coherent pulses and
downconversion sources. The proof applies to the BB84 protocol with the
standard detection scheme (no strong reference pulse). I obtain a formula for
the secure bit rate per time slot of an experimental setup which can be used to
optimize the performance of existing schemes for the considered scenario.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
High rate, long-distance quantum key distribution over 250km of ultra low loss fibres
We present a fully automated quantum key distribution prototype running at
625 MHz clock rate. Taking advantage of ultra low loss fibres and low-noise
superconducting detectors, we can distribute 6,000 secret bits per second over
100 km and 15 bits per second over 250km
Quantum Cryptography using entangled photons in energy-time Bell states
We present a setup for quantum cryptography based on photon pairs in
energy-time Bell states and show its feasability in a laboratory experiment.
Our scheme combines the advantages of using photon pairs instead of faint laser
pulses and the possibility to preserve energy-time entanglement over long
distances. Moreover, using 4-dimensional energy-time states, no fast random
change of bases is required in our setup : Nature itself decides whether to
measure in the energy or in the time base.Comment: 4 pages including 2 figure
Pulsed energy-time entangled twin-photon source for quantum communication
A pulsed source of energy-time entangled photon pairs pumped by a standard
laser diode is proposed and demonstrated. The basic states can be distinguished
by their time of arrival. This greatly simplifies the realization of 2-photon
quantum cryptography, Bell state analyzers, quantum teleportation, dense
coding, entanglement swapping, GHZ-states sources, etc. Moreover the
entanglement is well protected during photon propagation in telecom optical
fibers, opening the door to few-photon applications of quantum communication
over long distances.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
One-Way Entangled-Photon Autocompensating Quantum Cryptography
A new quantum cryptography implementation is presented that combines one-way
operation with an autocompensating feature that has hitherto only been
available in implementations that require the signal to make a round trip
between the users. Using the concept of advanced waves, it is shown that this
new implementation is related to the round-trip implementations in the same way
that Ekert's two-particle scheme is related to the original one-particle scheme
of Bennett and Brassard. The practical advantages and disadvantages of the
proposed implementation are discussed in the context of existing schemes.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; Minor edits--conclusions unchanged; accepted for
publication in Physical Review
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