Conventional continuous-variable quantum key distribution systems typically rely on discrete optical components, which have limited integration, are bulky and expensive. To overcome these drawbacks, photonic integrated circuit technology is a viable alternative that promises to increase the system integration. However, variable optical attenuators compatible with established photonic integration processes have stability difficulties that limit the performance of the system. This work provides a chip-based variable optical attenuator based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer structure. By using an unbalanced interferometer arm, the sensitivity of the optical attenuation coefficient to environmental fluctuations can be reduced, ensuring the high-precision control required for continuous-variable quantum key distribution systems. Our scheme will facilitate the implementation of a reliable and highly stable chip-based continuous-variable quantum key distribution system.
We experimentally realized a chip-based source-independent QRNG. The source-independent scheme provides a solution for the balance between the practical and device-independent QRNGs, which closes the security loopholes from the source, and can be easily realized with respect to the device-independent scheme based on loophole-free Bell test. For the measurement part, the imperfections of the detector are modeled and the practical loopholes in receiver side are thus closed. For the producibility, we use the Silicon-On-Illustrator (SOI) platform to integrate the optical path and detectors on chip. In this way, except for the local oscillator source, all the devices required by our QRNG scheme are integrated on a chip, which significantly promotes the miniaturization and scaling capabilities. The final generation rate is 15.6 Gbps, and the final random numbers well pass all the test items of NIST statistical tests, which demonstrates the practicability of a QRNG with source loophole-free, complete practical receiver modeling and chip-based devices.
We report a method to improve the performance of unidimensional continuous-variable quantum key distribution with imperfect detector by adding a parameter-adjustable optical amplifier, where the optimal performance can approach the scenario with a perfect detector.
The shot-noise unit (SNU) is a crucial factor for the practical security of a continuous-variable quantum key distribution system. In the most widely used experimental scheme, the SNU should be calibrated first and used as a constant during key distribution. Because the measurement result of quadrature is normalized with the calibration SNU but scaled with practical SNU, which could open loopholes for the eavesdropper to intercept the secret key. In this paper, we report a quantum hacking method to control the practical SNU by using the limited compensation rate for polarization drift. Since the polarization of local oscillator pulses is partially measured, the attack is implemented by manipulating the polarization of the local oscillator pulses without measurement when the system is running. The simulation and experiment results indicate that the practical SNU can be manipulated by the eavesdropper. By making the difference between the calibration and the practical SNU, the excess noise estimated by Alice and Bob could always be lower than the practice which is introduced by the eavesdropper and the distributed keys are not secure.
We experimentally demonstrate an optical quantum random number generator with real-time randomness extraction to directly output Gaussian distributed random numbers by measuring the vacuum fluctuation of quantum state. A tight randomness estimation and a Gaussian extractor are proposed to eliminate the influence of side information introduced by the imperfect devices in practical system. The generation of Gaussian distributed quantum random numbers can simply the procedure and reduce the calculation error by optimizing the procedure that transforms uniform distributed random numbers into Gaussian distributed random numbers. And the calculated Gaussian distributed random numbers can be utilized to transformed into random numbers with unique distributions.
Clock synchronization is crucial for a practical continuous-variable quantum key distribution system to precisely get the measurement result. Three different synchronization schemes for continuous-variable quantum key distribution system are presented to demonstrate the optimal scheme. The performance of synchronization scheme is evaluated by measuring the excess noise which is the critical parameter for the continuous-variable quantum key distribution system. The experiment results show that distilling the synchronization signal from the local oscillator has the simplest physical implemention and superior effect of synchronization, but a stronger local oscillator is required. Transmitting synchronization signal and quantum signal in the same fiber by wave-length division multiplex is also a fine way to provide stable clock when we take no account of the phsical device and wave-length source.
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