Countermeasure against blinding attack for single-photon detectors in quantum key distribution

Quantum key distribution(QKD),rooted in quantum mechanics,offers information-theoretic security.However,practi-cal systems open security threats due to imperfections,notably bright-light blinding attacks targeting single-photon detectors.Here,we propose a concise,robust defense strategy for protecting single-photon detectors in QKD systems against blinding attacks.Our strategy uses a dual approach:detecting the bias current of the avalanche photodiode(APD)to defend against con-tinuous-wave blinding attacks,and monitoring the avalanche amplitude to protect against pulsed blinding attacks.By integrat-ing these two branches,the proposed solution effectively identifies and mitigates a wide range of bright light injection attempts,significantly enhancing the resilience of QKD systems against various bright-light blinding attacks.This method forti-fies the safeguards of quantum communications and offers a crucial contribution to the field of quantum information security.

Single Photon Detection Technology in Underwater Wireless Optical Communication:Modulation Modes and Error Correction Coding Analysis

This study explores the application of single photon detection(SPD)technology in underwater wireless optical communication(UWOC)and analyzes the influence of different modulation modes and error correction coding types on communication performance.The study investigates the impact of on-off keying(OOK)and 2-pulse-position modulation(2-PPM)on the bit error rate(BER)in single-channel intensity and polarization multiplexing.Furthermore,it compares the error correction performance of low-density parity check(LDPC)and Reed-Solomon(RS)codes across different error correction coding types.The effects of unscattered photon ratio and depolarization ratio on BER are also verified.Finally,a UWOC system based on SPD is constructed,achieving 14.58 Mbps with polarization OOK multiplexing modulation and 4.37 Mbps with polarization 2-PPM multiplexing modulation using LDPC code error correction.

Photostability of colloidal single photon emitter in near-infrared regime at room temperature

The photostability of a colloidal single photon emitter in near-infrared regime at room temperature is investigated.The fluorescence lifetime,blinking phenomenon,and anti-bunching effect of a single CdTeSe/ZnS quantum dot with an emission wavelength of 800 nm at room temperature are studied.The second-order correlation function at zero delay time is much smaller than 0.1,which proves that the emission from single quantum dots at 800 nm is a highly pure single-photon source.The effects of the irradiation duration on the fluorescence from single quantum dots are analyzed.The experimental results can be explained by a recombination model including a multi-nonradiative recombination center model and a multi-charged model.

Technetium-99m-methylene diphosphonate single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography combined with prostate-specific antigen/free prostate-specific antigen ratio for bone metastasis of prostate cancer

BACKGROUND Prostate cancer(PC)is one of the most common malignant tumors in men,and bone metastasis is one of its common complications,which seriously affects the quality of life and prognosis of patients.AIM To investigate the diagnostic value of technetium-99m-methylene diphosphonate(99mTc-MDP)single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT)/CT imaging combined with the serum prostate-specific antigen(PSA)/free PSA ratio for PC bone metastasis(PCBM).METHODS One hundred patients with PC who visited the Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from January 2020 to January 2022 were recruited as the experimental(Exp)group,while 30 patients with benign prostatic lesions(BPLs)were recruited as the control(Ctrl)group.All patients underwent 99mTc-MDP SPECT/CT imaging and serum PSA/fPSA testing.The SPECT/CT imaging results and serum PSA/fPSA ratios of patients were analyzed to evaluate their diagnostic values for PCBM.RESULTS The difference in general information of the patients was not obvious,showing comparability.The two methods showed no visible differences in negative predictive value and sensitivity for patients with PCBM,but had great differences in positive predictive value and specificity(P<0.05).The PSA/fPSA ratio of patients with PC in the Exp group was lower than those with BPLs,and patients with PCBM had a much lower PSA/fPSA ratio than those without PC(P<0.05).The results confirmed that the combined use of 99mTc-MDP SPECT/CT imaging and serum PSA/fPSA ratio achieved a detection rate of 95%for PCBM.CONCLUSION The combination of 99mTc-MDP SPECT/CT and PSA/fPSA ratio is accurate and reliable for the diagnosis of PCBM,which provides an important reference for clinical practice.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor detected by technetium-99m methoxy-2-isobutylisonitrile single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography:A case report

BACKGROUND Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors(NETs)account for about 1%–2%of pancreatic tumors and about 8%of all NETs.Computed tomography(CT),magnetic resonance imaging,and endoscopic ultrasound are common imaging modalities for the diagnosis of pancreatic NETs.Furthermore,somatostatin receptor imaging is of great value for diagnosing pancreatic NETs.Herein,we report the efficacy of technetium-99m methoxy-2-isobutylisonitrile(99mTc-MIBI)single photon emission CT(SPECT)/CT for detecting pancreatic NETs.CASE SUMMARY A 57-year-old woman presented to our hospital with a 1-d history of persistent upper abdominal distending pain.The distending pain in the upper abdomen was aggravated after eating,with nausea and retching.Routine blood test results showed a high neutrophil percentage,low leukomonocyte and monocyte percentages,and low leukomonocyte and eosinophil counts.Amylase,liver and kidney function,and tumor markers alpha-fetoprotein,carcinoembryonic antigen,and cancer antigen(CA)125,CA72-4,CA19-9,and CA153 were normal.Abdominal CT showed a mass,with multiple calcifications between the pancreas and the spleen.The boundary between the mass and the pancreas and spleen was poorly defined.Contrast-enhanced CT revealed that the upper abdominal mass was unevenly and gradually enhanced.99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT revealed that a focal radioactive concentration,with mild radioactive concentration extending into the upper abdominal mass,was present at the pancreatic body and tail.The 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT manifestations were consistent with the final pathological diagnosis of pancreatic NET.CONCLUSION 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT appears to be a valuable tool for detecting pancreatic NETs.

Unconventional photon blockade in the two-photon Jaynes–Cummings model with two-frequency cavity drivings and atom driving

In a two-frequency cavity driving and atom driving atom-cavity system,we find the photon blockade effect.In a truncated eigenstates space,we calculate the zero-delay second-order correlation function of the cavity mode analytically and obtain an optimal condition for the photon blockade.By including three transition pathways,we find that higher excitations of the cavity mode can be further suppressed and the zero-delay second-order correlation function can be reduced additionally.Based on the master equation,we simulate the system evolution and find that the analytical solutions match well with the numerical results.Our scheme is robust with small fluctuations of parameters and may be used as a new type of single photon source.

GHz photon-number resolving detection with high detection efficiency and low noise by ultra-narrowband interference circuits

We demonstrate the photon-number resolution(PNR)capability of a 1.25 GHz gated InGaAs single-photon avalanche photodiode(APD)that is equipped with a simple,low-distortion ultra-narrowband interference circuit for the rejection of its background capacitive response.Through discriminating the avalanche current amplitude,we are able to resolve up to four detected photons in a single detection gate with a detection efficiency as high as 45%.The PNR capability is limited by the avalanche current saturation,and can be increased to five photons at a lower detection efficiency of 34%.The PNR capability,combined with high efficiency and low noise,will find applications in quantum information processing technique based on photonic qubits.

Secure quantum dialogue based on single-photon

In this paper a quantum dialogue scheme is proposed by using N batches of single photons. The same secret message is encoded on each batch of single photons by the sender with two different unitary operations, and then the N batches of single photons are sent to the receiver. After eavesdropping check, the message is encoded on the one remaining batch by the receiver. It is shown that the intercept-and-resend attack and coupling auxiliary modes attack can be resisted more efficiently, because the photons are sent only once in our quantum dialogue scheme.

Economical quantum secure direct communication network with single photons

In this paper a scheme for quantum secure direct communication （QSDC） network is proposed with a sequence of polarized single photons. The single photons are prepared originally in the same state （0） by the servers on the network, which will reduce the difficulty for the legitimate users to check eavesdropping largely. The users code the information on the single photons with two unitary operations which do not change their measuring bases. Some decoy photons, which are produced by operating the sample photons with a Hadamard, are used for preventing a potentially dishonest server from eavesdropping the quantum lines freely. This scheme is an economical one as it is the easiest way for QSDC network communication securely.

Recent progress of SiC UV single photon counting avalanche photodiodes

4H-SiC single photon counting avalanche photodiodes(SPADs)are prior devices for weak ultraviolet(UV)signal detection with the advantages of small size,low leakage current,high avalanche multiplication gain,and high quantum efficiency,which benefit from the large bandgap energy,high carrier drift velocity and excellent physical stability of 4 H-SiC semiconductor material.UV detectors are widely used in many key applications,such as missile plume detection,corona discharge,UV astronomy,and biological and chemical agent detection.In this paper,we will describe basic concepts and review recent results on device design,process development,and basic characterizations of 4 H-SiC avalanche photodiodes.Several promising device structures and uniformity of avalanche multiplication are discussed,which are important for achieving high performance of 4 HSiC UV SPADs.

Practical non-orthogonal decoy state quantum key distribution with heralded single photon source

Recently the performance of the quantum key distribution （QKD） is substantially improved by the decoy state method and the non-orthogonal encoding protocol, separately. In this paper, a practical non-orthogonal decoy state protocol with a heralded single photon source （HSPS） for QKD is presented. The protocol is based on 4 states with different intensities. i.e. one signal state and three decoy states. The signal state is for generating keys; the decoy states are for detecting the eavesdropping and estimating the fraction of single-photon and two-photon pulses. We have discussed three cases of this protocol, i.e. the general case, the optimal case and the special case. Moreover, the final key rate over transmission distance is simulated. For the low dark count of the HSPS and the utilization of the two-photon pulses, our protocol has a higher key rate and a longer transmission distance than any other decoy state protocol.

High photon detection efficiency InGaAs/InP single photon avalanche diode at 250 K

Planar semiconductor InGaAs/InP single photon avalanche diodes with high responsivity and low dark count rate are preferred single photon detectors in near-infrared communication.However,even with well-designed structures and well-con-trolled operational conditions,the performance of InGaAs/InP SPADs is limited by the inherent characteristics of avalanche pro-cess and the growth quality of InGaAs/InP materials.It is difficult to ensure high detection efficiency while the dark count rate is controlled within a certain range at present.In this paper,we fabricated a device with a thick InGaAs absorption region and an anti-reflection layer.The quantum efficiency of this device reaches 83.2%.We characterized the single-photon performance of the device by a quenching circuit consisting of parallel-balanced InGaAs/InP single photon detectors and single-period sinus-oidal pulse gating.The spike pulse caused by the capacitance effect of the device is eliminated by using the characteristics of parallel balanced common mode signal elimination,and the detection of small avalanche pulse amplitude signal is realized.The maximum detection efficiency is 55.4%with a dark count rate of 43.8 kHz and a noise equivalent power of 6.96×10^(−17 )W/Hz^(1/2) at 247 K.Compared with other reported detectors,this SPAD exhibits higher SPDE and lower noise-equivalent power at a higher cooling temperature.

Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detector with Optical Cavity

Increasing the detection efficiency （DE） is a hot issue in the development of the superconducting nanowire single photon detector （SNSPD）. In this work, a cavity-integrated structure coupled to the SNSPD is used to enhance the light absorption of nanowire. Ultra-thin Nb films are successfully prepared by magnetron sputtering, which are used to fabricate Nb/Al SNSPD with the curve of lOOnm and the square area of 4 × 4μm2 by sputtering and the lift-off method. To characterize the optical and electrical performance of the cavity-integrated SNSPD, a reliable cryogenic research system is built up based on a He3 system. To satisfy the need of light coupling, a packaging structure with collimator is conducted. Both DE and the dark count rates increase with lb. It is also found that the DE of SNSPD with cavities can be up to 0.17% at the temperature of 0.7K under the infrared light of 1550nm, which is obviously higher than that of the SNSPD directly fabricated upon silicon without any cavity structure.

Single Photon Scattering in a Pair of Waveguides Coupled by a Whispering-Gallery Resonator Interacting with a Semiconductor Quantum Dot

The single photon scattering properties in a pair of waveguides coupled by a whispering-gallery resonator in- teracting with a semiconductor quantum dot are investigated theoretically. The two waveguides support four possible ports for an incident single photon. The quantum dot is considered a V-type system. The incident direction-dependent single photon scattering properties are studied and equal-output probability from the four ports for a single photon incident is discussed. The influences of backscattering between the two modes of the whispering-gallery resonator for incident direction-dependent single photon scattering properties are also pre- sented.

Single photon transport properties in coupled cavity arrays nonlocally coupled to a two-level atom in the presence of dissipation

We discuss the effects of dissipation on the behavior of single photon transport in a system of coupled cavity arrays, with the two nearest cavities nonlocally coupled to a two-level atom. The single photon transmission amplitude is solved exactly by employing the quasi-boson picture. We investigate two different situations of local and nonlocal couplings, respectively. Comparing the dissipative case with the nondissipative one reveals that the dissipation of the system increases the middle dip and lowers the peak of the single photon transmission amplitudes, broadening the line width of the transport spectrum. It should be noted that the influence of the cavity dissipation to the single photon transport spectrum is asymmet- ric. By comparing the nonlocal coupling with the local one, one can find that the enhancement of the middle dip of single photon transmission amplitudes is mostly caused by the atom dissipation and that the reduced peak is mainly caused by the cavity dissipation, no matter whether it is a nonlocal or local coupling case. Whereas in the nonlocal coupling case, when the coupling strength gets stronger, the cavity dissipation has a greater effect on the single photon transport spectrum and the atom dissipation affection becomes weak, so it can be ignored.

Quantum frequency down-conversion of single photons at 1552 nm from single InAs quantum dot

Near-infrared single photon sources in telecommunication bands, especially at 1550 nm, are required for long-distance quantum communication. Here a down-conversion quantum interface is implemented, where the single photons emitted from single In As quantum dot at 864 nm is down converted to 1552 nm by using a fiber-coupled periodically poled lithium niobate（PPLN） waveguide and a 1.95 μmm pump laser, and the frequency conversion efficiency is ~40%. The singlephoton purity of quantum dot emission is preserved during the down-conversion process, i.e., g^（（2））（0）, only 0.22 at 1552 nm.This present technique advances the Ⅲ-Ⅴ semiconductor quantum dots as a promising platform for long-distance quantum communication.

Detection efficiency characteristics of free-running InGaAs/InP single photon detector using passive quenching active reset IC

InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes （APD） are rarely used in a free-running regime for near-infrared single photon detection. In order to overcome the detrimental afterpulsing, we demonstrate a passive quenching active reset integrated circuit. Taking advantage of the inherent fast passive quenching process and active reset to reduce reset time, the integrated circuit is useful for reducing afterpulses and is also area-efficient. We investigate the free-running single photon detector＇s afterpulsing effect, de-trapping time, dark count rate, and photon detection efficiency, and also compare with gated regime operation. After correction for deadtime and afterpulse, we find that the passive quenching active reset free-running single photon detector＇s performance is consistent with gated operation.

Quantification of Tc-99m-ethyl cysteinate dimer brain single photon emission computed tomography images using statistical probabilistic brain atlas in depressive end-stage renal disease patients:Correlation with disease severity and symptom factors

This study adapted a statistical probabilistic anatomical map of the brain for single photon emission computed tomography images of depressive end-stage renal disease patients. This research aimed to investigate the relationship between symptom clusters, disease severity, and cerebral blood flow. Twenty-seven patients （16 males, 11 females） with stages 4 and 5 end-stage renal disease were enrolled, along with 25 healthy controls. All patients underwent depressive mood assessment and brain single photon emission computed tomography. The statistical probabilistic anatomical map images were used to calculate the brain single photon emission computed tomography counts. Asymmetric index was acquired and Pearson correlation analysis was performed to analyze the correlation between symptom factors, severity, and regional cerebral blood flow. The depression factors of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale showed a negative correlation with cerebral blood flow in the left amygdale. The insomnia factor showed negative correlations with cerebral blood flow in the left amygdala, right superior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, and left middle frontal gyrus. The anxiety factor showed a positive correlation with cerebral glucose metabolism in the cerebellar vermis and a negative correlation with cerebral glucose metabolism in the left globus pailidus, right inferior frontal gyrus, both temporal poles, and left parahippocampus. The overall depression severity （total scores of Hamilton Depression Rating Scale） was negatively correlated with the statistical probabilistic anatomical map results in the left amygdala and right inferior frontal gyrus. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that the disease severity and extent of cerebral blood flow quantified by a probabilistic brain atlas was related to various brain areas in terms of the overall severity and symptom factors in end-stage renal disease patients.

PET image reconstruction with a system matrix containing point spread function derived from single photon incidence response

A point spread function（PSF） for the blurring component in positron emission tomography（PET） is studied. The PSF matrix is derived from the single photon incidence response function. A statistical iterative reconstruction（IR） method based on the system matrix containing the PSF is developed. More specifically, the gamma photon incidence upon a crystal array is simulated by Monte Carlo（MC） simulation, and then the single photon incidence response functions are calculated. Subsequently, the single photon incidence response functions are used to compute the coincidence blurring factor according to the physical process of PET coincidence detection. Through weighting the ordinary system matrix response by the coincidence blurring factors, the IR system matrix containing the PSF is finally established. By using this system matrix, the image is reconstructed by an ordered subset expectation maximization（OSEM） algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed system matrix can substantially improve the image radial resolution, contrast,and noise property. Furthermore, the simulated single gamma-ray incidence response function depends only on the crystal configuration, so the method could be extended to any PET scanner with the same detector crystal configuration.

Efficient quantum private comparison protocol utilizing single photons and rotational encryption

As a branch of quantum secure multiparty computation,quantum private comparison is applied frequently in many fields,such as secret elections,private voting,and identification.A quantum private comparison protocol with higher efficiency and easier implementation is proposed in this paper.The private secrets are encoded as single polarized photons and then encrypted with a homomorphic rotational encryption method.Relying on this method and the circular transmission mode,we implement the multiplexing of photons,raising the efficiency of our protocol to 100%.Our protocol is easy to realize since only single photons,unitary operation,and single-particle measurement are introduced.Meanwhile,the analysis shows that our protocol is also correct and secure.