87 research outputs found
Long distance free-space quantum key distribution
In the age of information and globalisation, secure communication as well as the protection of sensitive data against unauthorised access are of utmost importance. Quantum cryptography currently provides the only way to exchange a cryptographic key between two parties in an unconditionally secure fashion. Owing to losses and noise of today's optical fibre and detector technology, at present quantum cryptography is limited to distances below a few 100 km. In principle, larger distances could be subdivided into shorter segments, but the required quantum repeaters are still beyond current technology. An alternative approach for bridging larger distances is a satellite-based system, that would enable secret key exchange between two arbitrary points on the globe using free-space optical communication.
The aim of the presented experiment was to investigate the feasibility of satellite-based global quantum key distribution. In this context, a free-space quantum key distribution experiment over a real distance of 144 km was performed. The transmitter and the receiver were situated in 2500 m altitude on the Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife, respectively. The small and compact transmitter unit generated attenuated laser pulses, that were sent to the receiver via a 15-cm optical telescope. The receiver unit for polarisation analysis and detection of the sent pulses was integrated into an existing mirror telescope designed for classical optical satellite communications. To ensure the required stability and efficiency of the optical link in the presence of atmospheric turbulence, the two telescopes were equipped with a bi-directional automatic tracking system.
Still, due to stray light and high optical attenuation, secure key exchange would not be possible using attenuated pulses in connection with the standard BB84 protocol. The photon number statistics of attenuated pulses follows a Poissonian distribution. Hence, by removing a photon from all pulses containing two or more photons, an eavesdropper could measure its polarisation without disturbing the polarisation state of the remaining pulse. In this way, he can gain information about the key without introducing detectable errors. To protect against such attacks, the presented experiment employed the recently developed method of using additional "decoy" states, i.e., the the intensity of the pulses created by the transmitter were varied in a random manner. By analysing the detection probabilities of the different pulses individually, a photon-number-splitting attack can be detected. Thanks to the decoy-state analysis, the secrecy of the resulting quantum key could be ensured despite the Poissonian nature of the emitted pulses. For a channel attenuation as high as 35 dB, a secret key rate of up to 250 bit/s was achieved.
Our outdoor experiment was carried out under real atmospheric conditions and with a channel attenuation comparable to an optical link from ground to a satellite in low earth orbit. Hence, it definitely shows the feasibility of satellite-based quantum key distribution using a technologically comparatively simple system
Non-Poissonian statistics from Poissonian light sources with application to passive decoy state quantum key distribution
We propose a method to prepare different non-Poissonian signal pulses from
sources of Poissonian photon number distribution using only linear optical
elements and threshold photon detectors. This method allows a simple passive
preparation of decoy states for quantum key distribution. We show that the
resulting key rates are comparable to the performance of active choices of
intensities of Poissonian signals.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Opt. Let
The Case for Quantum Key Distribution
Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises secure key agreement by using quantum
mechanical systems. We argue that QKD will be an important part of future
cryptographic infrastructures. It can provide long-term confidentiality for
encrypted information without reliance on computational assumptions. Although
QKD still requires authentication to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, it can
make use of either information-theoretically secure symmetric key
authentication or computationally secure public key authentication: even when
using public key authentication, we argue that QKD still offers stronger
security than classical key agreement.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure; to appear in proceedings of QuantumComm 2009
Workshop on Quantum and Classical Information Security; version 2 minor
content revision
Witnessing effective entanglement over a 2km fiber channel
We present a fiber-based continuous-variable quantum key distribution system.
In the scheme, a quantum signal of two non-orthogonal weak optical coherent
states is sent through a fiber-based quantum channel. The receiver
simultaneously measures conjugate quadratures of the light using two homodyne
detectors. From the measured Q-function of the transmitted signal, we estimate
the attenuation and the excess noise caused by the channel. The estimated
excess noise originating from the channel and the channel attenuation including
the quantum efficiency of the detection setup is investigated with respect to
the detection of effective entanglement. The local oscillator is considered in
the verification. We witness effective entanglement with a channel length of up
to 2km.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Distributing entanglement and single photons through an intra-city, free-space quantum channel
We have distributed entangled photons directly through the atmosphere to a
receiver station 7.8 km away over the city of Vienna, Austria at night.
Detection of one photon from our entangled pairs constitutes a triggered single
photon source from the sender. With no direct time-stable connection, the two
stations found coincidence counts in the detection events by calculating the
cross-correlation of locally-recorded time stamps shared over a public internet
channel. For this experiment, our quantum channel was maintained for a total of
40 minutes during which time a coincidence lock found approximately 60000
coincident detection events. The polarization correlations in those events
yielded a Bell parameter, S=2.27/pm0.019, which violates the CHSH-Bell
inequality by 14 standard deviations. This result is promising for
entanglement-based free-space quantum communication in high-density urban
areas. It is also encouraging for optical quantum communication between ground
stations and satellites since the length of our free-space link exceeds the
atmospheric equivalent.Comment: 8 pages including 1 figure and 2 tables. The first two authors
contributed equally to this wor
Field test of a practical secure communication network with decoy-state quantum cryptography
We present a secure network communication system that operated with
decoy-state quantum cryptography in a real-world application scenario. The full
key exchange and application protocols were performed in real time among three
nodes, in which two adjacent nodes were connected by approximate 20 km of
commercial telecom optical fiber. The generated quantum keys were immediately
employed and demonstrated for communication applications, including unbreakable
real-time voice telephone between any two of the three communication nodes, or
a broadcast from one node to the other two nodes by using one-time pad
encryption.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, typos correcte
High-fidelity transmission of entanglement over a high-loss freespace channel
Quantum entanglement enables tasks not possible in classical physics. Many
quantum communication protocols require the distribution of entangled states
between distant parties. Here we experimentally demonstrate the successful
transmission of an entangled photon pair over a 144 km free-space link. The
received entangled states have excellent, noise-limited fidelity, even though
they are exposed to extreme attenuation dominated by turbulent atmospheric
effects. The total channel loss of 64 dB corresponds to the estimated
attenuation regime for a two-photon satellite quantum communication scenario.
We confirm that the received two-photon states are still highly entangled by
violating the CHSH inequality by more than 5 standard deviations. From a
fundamental point of view, our results show that the photons are virtually not
subject to decoherence during their 0.5 ms long flight through air, which is
encouraging for future world-wide quantum communication scenarios.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, replaced paper with published version, added
journal referenc
Experimental demonstration of a BDCZ quantum repeater node
Quantum communication is a method that offers efficient and secure ways for
the exchange of information in a network. Large-scale quantum communication (of
the order of 100 km) has been achieved; however, serious problems occur beyond
this distance scale, mainly due to inevitable photon loss in the transmission
channel. Quantum communication eventually fails when the probability of a dark
count in the photon detectors becomes comparable to the probability that a
photon is correctly detected. To overcome this problem, Briegel, D\"{u}r, Cirac
and Zoller (BDCZ) introduced the concept of quantum repeaters, combining
entanglement swapping and quantum memory to efficiently extend the achievable
distances. Although entanglement swapping has been experimentally demonstrated,
the implementation of BDCZ quantum repeaters has proved challenging owing to
the difficulty of integrating a quantum memory. Here we realize entanglement
swapping with storage and retrieval of light, a building block of the BDCZ
quantum repeater. We follow a scheme that incorporates the strategy of BDCZ
with atomic quantum memories. Two atomic ensembles, each originally entangled
with a single emitted photon, are projected into an entangled state by
performing a joint Bell state measurement on the two single photons after they
have passed through a 300-m fibre-based communication channel. The entanglement
is stored in the atomic ensembles and later verified by converting the atomic
excitations into photons. Our method is intrinsically phase insensitive and
establishes the essential element needed to realize quantum repeaters with
stationary atomic qubits as quantum memories and flying photonic qubits as
quantum messengers.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Atmospheric Channel Characteristics for Quantum Communication with Continuous Polarization Variables
We investigate the properties of an atmospheric channel for free space
quantum communication with continuous polarization variables. In our
prepare-and-measure setup, coherent polarization states are transmitted through
an atmospheric quantum channel of 100m length on the roof of our institute's
building. The signal states are measured by homodyne detection with the help of
a local oscillator (LO) which propagates in the same spatial mode as the
signal, orthogonally polarized to it. Thus the interference of signal and LO is
excellent and atmospheric fluctuations are autocompensated. The LO also acts as
spatial and spectral filter, which allows for unrestrained daylight operation.
Important characteristics for our system are atmospheric channel influences
that could cause polarization, intensity and position excess noise. Therefore
we study these influences in detail. Our results indicate that the channel is
suitable for our quantum communication system in most weather conditions.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Applied Physics B following an
invitation for the special issue "Selected Papers Presented at the 2009
Spring Meeting of the Quantum Optics and Photonics Section of the German
Physical Society
Memory-built-in quantum teleportation with photonic and atomic qubits
The combination of quantum teleportation and quantum memory of photonic
qubits is essential for future implementations of large-scale quantum
communication and measurement-based quantum computation. Both steps have been
achieved separately in many proof-of-principle experiments, but the
demonstration of memory-built-in teleportation of photonic qubits remains an
experimental challenge. Here, we demonstrate teleportation between photonic
(flying) and atomic (stationary) qubits. In our experiment, an unknown
polarization state of a single photon is teleported over 7 m onto a remote
atomic qubit that also serves as a quantum memory. The teleported state can be
stored and successfully read out for up to 8 micro-second. Besides being of
fundamental interest, teleportation between photonic and atomic qubits with the
direct inclusion of a readable quantum memory represents a step towards an
efficient and scalable quantum network.Comment: 19 pages 3 figures 1 tabl
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