Experimental Point-to-Multipoint Plug-and-Play Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution Network

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution(MDI-QKD) offers a practical way to realize a startype quantum network. Previous experiments on MDI-QKD networks can only support the point-to-point communication. We experimentally demonstrate a plug-and-play MDI-QKD network which can support the pointto-multipoint communication among three users. Benefiting from the plug-and-play MDI-QKD architecture,the whole network is automatically stabilized in spectrum, polarization, arrival time, and phase reference. The users only need the encoding devices, which means that the hardware requirements are greatly reduced. Our experiment shows that it is feasible to establish a point-to-multipoint MDI-QKD network.

Time-Bin Phase-Encoding Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution with Four Single-Photon Detectors

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution(MDI-QKD) eliminates all loopholes on detection.Previous experiments of time-bin phase-encoding MDI-QKD allow a factor of 3/4 loss in the final key for the incapability of identifying two successive detection events by a single photon detector.Here we propose a new scheme to realize the time-bin phase-encoding MDI-QKD.The polarization states are used to generate the time bins and the phase-encoding states.The factor of loss in the final key is eliminated by using four single photon detectors at the measurement site.We show the feasibility of our scheme with a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration.The phase reference frame is rotated extremely slowly with only passive stabilization measures.The quantum bit error rate can reach 0.8% in the Z-basis and 26.2% in the X-basis.

Performance analysis of continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution under diverse weather conditions

The effects of weather conditions are ubiquitous in practical wireless quantum communication links.Here in this work,the performances of atmospheric continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution(CV-MDI-QKD)under diverse weather conditions are analyzed quantitatively.According to the Mie scattering theory and atmospheric CV-MDI-QKD model,we numerically simulate the relationship between performance of CV-MDI-QKD and the rainy and foggy conditions,aiming to get close to the actual combat environment in the future.The results show that both rain and fog will degrade the performance of the CV-MDI-QKD protocol.Under the rainy condition,the larger the raindrop diameter,the more obvious the extinction effect is and the lower the secret key rate accordingly.In addition,we find that the secret key rate decreases with the increase of spot deflection distance and the fluctuation of deflection.Under the foggy condition,the results illustrate that the transmittance decreases with the increase of droplet radius or deflection distance,which eventually yields the decrease in the secret key rate.Besides,in both weather conditions,the increase of transmission distance also leads the secret key rate to deteriorate.Our work can provide a foundation for evaluating the performance evaluation and successfully implementing the atmospheric CV-MDI-QKD in the future field operation environment under different weather conditions.

Improvement of a continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution system via quantum scissors

We propose a new scheme to enhance the performance of the Gussian-modulated coherent-state continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution(CV-MDI-QKD)system via quantum scissors(QS)operation at Bob's side.As an non-deterministic amplifying setup,we firstly introduce the QS-enhanced CV-MDI-QKD protocol and then investigate the success probability of the QS operation in accordance with the equivalent one-way scheme.Afterwards,we investigate the effect of the QS operation on the proposed scheme and analyze the performance of the QS-enhanced CV-MDI-QKD system under the extreme asymmetric circumstance.Simulation results show that the QS operation can indeed improve the performance of the CV-MDI-QKD system considerably.QS-enhanced CV-MDI-QKD protocol outperforms the original CV-MDI-QKD protocol in both the maximum transmission distance and the secret key rate.Moreover,the better the performance of QS operation,the more significant the improvement of performance of the system.

Measurement-device-independent quantum secret sharing with hyper-encoding

Quantum secret sharing(QSS) is a typical multi-party quantum communication mode, in which the key sender splits a key into several parts and the participants can obtain the key by cooperation. Measurement-device-independent quantum secret sharing(MDI-QSS) is immune to all possible attacks from measurement devices and can greatly enhance QSS's security in practical applications. However, previous MDI-QSS's key generation rate is relatively low. Here, we adopt the polarization-spatial-mode hyper-encoding technology in the MDI-QSS, which can increase single photon's channel capacity. Meanwhile, we use the cross-Kerr nonlinearity to realize the complete hyper-entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state analysis. Both above factors can increase MDI-QSS's key generation rate by about 10^(3). The proposed hyper-encoded MDI-QSS protocol may be useful for future multiparity quantum communication applications.

Measurement-device-independent one-step quantum secure direct communication

The one-step quantum secure direct communication(QSDC)(Sci.Bull.67,367(2022))can effectively simplify QSDC’s operation and reduce message loss.For enhancing its security under practical experimental condition,we propose two measurement-device-independent(MDI)one-step QSDC protocols,which can resist all possible attacks from imperfect measurement devices.In both protocols,the communication parties prepare identical polarization-spatial-mode two-photon hyperentangled states and construct the hyperentanglement channel by hyperentanglement swapping.The first MDI one-step QSDC protocol adopts the nonlinear-optical complete hyperentanglement Bell state measurement(HBSM)to construct the hyperentanglement channel,while the second protocol adopts the linear-optical partial HBSM.Then,the parties encode the photons in the polarization degree of freedom and send them to the third party for the hyperentanglementassisted complete polarization Bell state measurement.Both protocols are unconditionally secure in theory.The simulation results show the MDI one-step QSDC protocol with complete HBSM attains the maximal communication distance of about354 km.Our MDI one-step QSDC protocols may have potential applications in the future quantum secure communication field.

Measurement-device-independent quantum communication without encryption

Security in communication is vital in modern life. At present, security is realized by an encryption process in cryptography. It is unbelievable if a secure communication is achievable without encryption. In quantum cryptography, there is a unique form of quantum communication, quantum secure direct communication, where secret information is transmitted directly over a quantum channel. Quantum secure direct communication is drastically distinct from our conventional concept of secure communication, because it does not require key distribution, key storage and ciphertext transmission, and eliminates the encryption procedure completely. Hence it avoids in principle all the security loopholes associated with key and ciphertext in traditional secure communications. For practical implementation, defects always exist in real devices and it may downgrade the security. Among the various device imperfections, those with the measurement devices are the most prominent and serious ones. Here we report a measurementdevice-independent quantum secure direct communication protocol using Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pairs. This protocol eradicates the security vulnerabilities associated with the measurement device,and greatly enhances the practical security of quantum secure direct communication. In addition to the security advantage, this protocol has an extended communication distance, and a high communication capacity.

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution of multiple degrees of freedom of a single photon

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution(MDI-QKD)provides us a powerful approach to resist all attacks at detection side.Besides the unconditional security,people also seek for high key generation rate,but MDI-QKD has relatively low key generation rate.In this paper,we provide an efficient approach to increase the key generation rate of MDI-QKD by adopting multiple degrees of freedom(DOFs)of single photons to generate keys.Compared with other high-dimension MDI-QKD protocols encoding in one DOF,our protocol is more flexible,for our protocol generating keys in independent subsystems and the detection failure or error in a DOF not affecting the information encoding in other DOFs.Based on above features,our MDI-QKD protocol may have potential application in future quantum comniunication field.

Simultaneous measurement-device-independent continuous variable quantum key distribution with realistic detector compensation

We propose a novel scheme for measurement-device-independent(MDI)continuous-variable quantum key distribution(CVQKD)by simultaneously conducting classical communication and QKD,which is called“simultaneous MDI-CVQKD”protocol.In such protocol,each sender(Alice,Bob)can superimpose random numbers for QKD on classical information by taking advantage of the same weak coherent pulse and an untrusted third party(Charlie)decodes it by using the same coherent detectors,which could be appealing in practice due to that multiple purposes can be realized by employing only single communication system.What is more,the proposed protocol is MDI,which is immune to all possible side-channel attacks on practical detectors.Security results illustrate that the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can secure against arbitrary collective attacks.In addition,we employ phase-sensitive optical amplifiers to compensate the imperfection existing in practical detectors.With this technology,even common practical detectors can be used for detection through choosing a suitable optical amplifier gain.Furthermore,we also take the finite-size effect into consideration and show that the whole raw keys can be taken advantage of to generate the final secret key instead of sacrificing part of them for parameter estimation.Therefore,an enhanced performance of the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can be obtained in finite-size regime.

Photon subtraction-based continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution with discrete modulation over a fiber-to-water channel

We propose a discrete-modulated continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution protocol over a fiber-to-water channel.Different from optical fibers,the underwater channel has more severe optical attenuation because of optical absorption and scattering,which reduces the maximum communication distance.To enhance the performance of the protocol,the photon subtraction operation is implemented at the modulator side.We carry out a performance simulation in two different kinds of seawater channel,and the result shows that the scheme with photon subtraction has a longer secure communication distance under certain conditions.

Sender-controlled measurement-device-independent multiparty quantum communication

Multiparty quantum communication is an important branch of quantum networks.It enables private information transmission with information-theoretic security among legitimate parties.We propose a sender-controlled measurement-device-independent multiparty quantum communication protocol.The sender Alice divides a private message into several parts and delivers them to different receivers for secret sharing with imperfect measurement devices and untrusted ancillary nodes.Furthermore,Alice acts as an active controller and checks the security of quantum channels and the reliability of each receiver before she encodes her private message for secret sharing,which makes the protocol convenient for multiparity quantum communication.

Research on measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution based on an air-water channel

A measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution(MDI-QKD) method with an air-water channel is researched. In this method, the underwater vehicle and satellite are the legitimate parties, and the third party is at the airwater interface in order to simplify the unilateral quantum channel to water or air. Considering the condition that both unilateral transmission distance and transmission loss coefficient are unequal, a perfect model of the asymmetric channel is built. The influence of asymmetric channel on system loss tolerance and secure transmission distance is analyzed. The simulation results show that with the increase of the channel's asymmetric degree, the system loss tolerance will descend, one transmission distance will be reduced while the other will be increased. When the asymmetric coefficient of channel is between 0.068 and 0.171, MDI-QKD can satisfy the demand of QKD with an air-water channel, namely the underwater transmission distance and atmospheric transmission distance are not less than 60 m and 12 km, respectively.

Security of the traditional quantum key distribution protocols with finite-key lengths

Quantum key distribution(QKD)in principle can provide unconditional secure communication between distant parts.However,when finite-key length is taken into account,the security can only be ensured within certain security level.In this paper,we adopt the Chernoff bound analysis method to deal with finite-key-size effects,carrying out corresponding investigations on the relationship between the key generation rate and security parameters for different protocols,including BB84,measurement-device-independent and twin-field QKD protocols.Simulation results show that there exists a fundamental limit between the key rate and the security parameters.Therefore,this study can provide valuable references for practical application of QKD,getting a nice balance between the key generation rate and the security level.

Simultaneous two-way classical communication and measurement-deviceindependent quantum key distribution on oceanic quantum channels

Simultaneous two-way classical and quantum(STCQ)communication combines both continuous classical coherent optical communication and continuous-variable quantum key distribution(CVQKD),which eliminates all detection-related imperfections by being measurement-device-independent(MDI).In this paper,we propose a protocol relying on STCQ communication on the oceanic quantum channel,in which the superposition-modulation-based coherent states depend on the information bits of both the secret key and the classical communication ciphertext.We analyse the encoding combination in classical communication and consider the probability distribution transmittance under seawater turbulence with various interference factors.Our numerical simulations of various practical scenarios demonstrate that the proposed protocol can simultaneously enable two-way classical communication and CV-MDI QKD with just a slight performance degradation transmission distance compared to the original CV-MDI QKD scheme.Moreover,the asymmetric situation outperforms the symmetric case in terms of transmission distance and optical modulation variance.We further take into consideration the impact of finite-size effects to illustrate the applicability of the proposed scheme in practical scenarios.The results show the feasibility of the underwater STCQ scheme,which contributes toward developing a global quantum communication network in free space.