We introduce a new class of quantum quantum key distribution protocols, tailored to be robust against photon number splitting (PNS) attacks. We study one of these protocols, which differs from the BB84 only in the classical sifting procedure. This protocol is provably better than BB84 against PNS attacks at zero error.
A new class of quantum cryptography (QC) protocols that are robust against the most general photon number splitting attacks in a weak coherent pulse implementation has been recently proposed. In this article we give a quite exhaustive analysis of several eavesdropping attacks on these schemes. The eavesdropper (Eve) is supposed to have unlimited technological power while the honest parties (Alice and Bob) use present day technology, in particular an attenuated laser as an approximation of a single-photon source. They exploit the nonorthogonality of quantum states for decreasing the information…
We report the full implementation of a quantum cryptography protocol using a stream of single photon pulses generated by a stable and efficient source operating at room temperature. The single photon pulses are emitted on demand by a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in a diamond nanocrystal. The quantum bit error rate is less that 4.6% and the secure bit rate is 9500 bits/s. The overall performances of our system reaches a domain where single photons have a measurable advantage over an equivalent system based on attenuated light pulses.
We present a new protocol for practical quantum cryptography, tailored for an implementation with weak coherent pulses. The key is obtained by a very simple time-of-arrival measurement on the data line; an interferometer is built on an additional monitoring line, allowing to monitor the presence of a spy (who would break coherence by her intervention). Against zero-error attacks (the analog of photon-number-splitting attacks), this protocol performs as well as standard protocols with strong reference pulses: the key rate decreases only as the transmission $t$ of the quantum channel. We present…
Mistrustful cryptography includes important tasks like bit commitment, oblivious transfer, coin flipping, secure computations, position authentication, digital signatures and secure unforgeable tokens. Practical quantum implementations presently use photonic setups. In many such implementations, Alice sends photon pulses encoding quantum states and Bob chooses measurements on these states. In practice, Bob generally uses single photon threshold detectors, which cannot distinguish the number of photons in detected pulses. Also, losses and other imperfections require Bob to report the detected p…
In practical quantum cryptography, the source sometimes produces multi-photon pulses, thus enabling the eavesdropper Eve to perform the powerful photon-number-splitting (PNS) attack. Recently, it was shown by Curty and Lutkenhaus [Phys. Rev. A 69, 042321 (2004)] that the PNS attack is not always the optimal attack when two photons are present: if errors are present in the correlations Alice-Bob and if Eve cannot modify Bob's detection efficiency, Eve gains a larger amount of information using another attack based on a 2->3 cloning machine. In this work, we extend this analysis to all distances…
In this paper we investigate the security of a quantum cryptographic scheme which utilizes balanced homodyne detection and weak coherent pulse (WCP). The performance of the system is mainly characterized by the intensity of the WCP and postselected threshold. Two of the simplest intercept/resend eavesdropping attacks are analyzed. The secure key gain for a given loss is also discussed in terms of the pulse intensity and threshold.
Practical implementations of quantum cryptography use attenuated laser pulses as the signal source rather than single photons. The channels used to transmit are also lossy. Here we give a simple derivation of two beam-splitting attacks on quantum cryptographic systems using laser pulses, either coherent or mixed states with any mean photon number. We also give a simple derivation of a photon-number splitting attack, the most advanced, both in terms of performance and technology required. We find bounds on the maximum disturbance for a given mean photon number and observed channel transmission …
In order to beat any type of photon-number-splitting attack, we propose a protocol for quantum key distributoin (QKD) using 4 different intensities of pulses. They are vacuum and coherent states with mean photon number $μ,μ'$ and $μ_s$. $μ_s$ is around 0.55 and this class of pulses are used as the main signal states. The other two classes of coherent states ($μ,μ'$) are also used signal states but their counting rates should be studied jointly with the vacuum. We have shown that, given the typical set-up in practice, the key rate from the main signal pulses is quite close to the theoretically …
The binary (one-bit-per-photon) encoding that most existing quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols employ puts a fundamental limit on their achievable key rates, especially under high channel loss conditions associated with long-distance fiber-optic or satellite-to-ground links. Inspired by the pulse-position-modulation (PPM) approach to photon-starved classical communications, we design and demonstrate the first PPM-QKD, whose security against collective attacks is established through continuous-variable entanglement measurements that also enable a novel decoy-state protocol performed conve…
We report experimental studies on the effect of the depolarizing quantum channel on weak-pulse BB84 and SARG04 quantum cryptography. The experimental results show that, in real world conditions in which channel depolarization cannot be ignored, BB84 should perform better than SARG04.
We consider a new type of attack on a coherent quantum key distribution protocol [coherent one-way (COW) protocol]. The main idea of the attack consists in measuring individually the intercepted states and sending the rest of them unchanged. We have calculated the optimum values of the attack parameters for an arbitrary length of a channel length and compared this novel attack with a standard beam-splitting attack.
Indistinguishable laser pulse is important in realization of qubits in quantum cryptography. Implementation of such cryptography in automotive framework needs to be compact and cheap. However, modern implementation of quantum cryptography is bulky and expensive. Significant effort has been put into to reduce the form factor of quantum cryptography implementation. We report a compact, low cost, indistinguishable, sub-nanosecond pulse generator with adjusted delay and amplitude using a Fabry-Perot laser diode. The approach was derived based on algebraic topology formulation of electrical network…
Quantum cryptography has attracted much recent attention due to its potential for providing secret communications that cannot be decrypted by any amount of computational effort. This is the first analysis of the secrecy of a practical implementation of the BB84 protocol that simultaneously takes into account and presents the {\it full} set of complete analytical expressions for effects due to the presence of pulses containing multiple photons in the attenuated output of the laser, the finite length of individual blocks of key material, losses due to error correction, privacy amplification, con…
Quantum cryptography is reviewed, first using entanglement both for the intuition and for the experimental realizations. Next, the implementation is simplified in several steps until it becomes practical. At this point entanglement has disappeared. This method can be seen as a lesson of Applied Physics. Finally, security issues, e.g. photon number splitting attacks, and counter-measures are discussed.
The use of quantum bits (qubits) in cryptography holds the promise of secure cryptographic quantum key distribution schemes. Unfortunately, the implemented schemes can be totally insecure. We provide a thorough investigation of security issues for practical quantum key distribution, taking into account channel losses, a realistic detection process, and modifications of the ``qubits'' sent from the sender to the receiver. We first show that even quantum key distribution with perfect qubits cannot be achieved over long distances when fixed channel losses and fixed dark count errors are taken int…
We investigate the security of continuous-variable (CV) quantum key distribution (QKD) using coherent states in the presence of quadrature excess noise. We consider an eavesdropping attack which uses a linear amplifier and beam splitter. This attack makes a link between beam-splitting attack and intercept-resend attack (classical teleportation attack). We also show how postselection loses its efficiency in a realistic channel.
Quantum cryptographic key distribution (QKD) uses extremely faint light pulses to carry quantum information between two parties (Alice and Bob), allowing them to generate a shared, secret cryptographic key. Autocompensating QKD systems automatically and passively compensate for uncontrolled time dependent variations of the optical fiber properties by coding the information as a differential phase between orthogonally-polarized components of a light pulse sent on a round trip through the fiber, reflected at mid-course using a Faraday mirror. We have built a prototype system based on standard te…
Recently, counterfactual quantum cryptography proposed by T. G. Noh [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 230501 (2009)] becomes an interesting direction in quantum cryptography, and has been realized by some researchers (such as Y. Liu et al's [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 030501 (2012)]). However, we find out that it is insecure in practical high lossy channel setting. We analyze the secret key rates in lossy channel under a polarization-splitting-measurement attack. Analysis indicates that the protocol is insecure when the loss rate of the one-way channel exceeds $50%$.
Quantum Cryptography over 23km of installed Telecom fiber using a novel interferometer with Faraday mirrors is presented. The interferometer needs no alignment nor polarization control and features 99.8% fringe visibility. A secret key of 20kbit length with a error rate of 1.35% for 0.1 photon per pulse was produced.
Amplitude squeezed pulsed light has been produced using a microstructured silica fibre. By spectrally filtering after the nonlinear propagation in the fibre a squeezing value of -1.7dB has been measured. A quantum key distribution scheme based on squeezed light from such microstructured fibres is proposed.
The Differential-Phase-Shift (DPS) and the Coherent-One-Way (COW) are among the most practical protocols for quantum cryptography, and are therefore the object of fast-paced experimental developments. The assessment of their security is also a challenge for theorists: the existing tools, that allow to prove security against the most general attacks, do not apply to these two protocols in any straightforward way. We present new upper bounds for their security in the limit of large distances ($d \gtrsim 50$km with typical values in optical fibers) by considering a large class of collective attac…
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.
In practical quantum key distribution, weak coherent state is often used and the channel transmittance can be very small therefore the protocol could be totally insecure under the photon-number-splitting attack. We propose an efficient method to verify the upper bound of the fraction of counts caused by multi-photon pluses transmitted from Alice to Bob, given whatever type of Eve's action. The protocol simply uses two coherent states for the signal pulses and vacuum for decoy pulse. Our verified upper bound is sufficiently tight for QKD with very lossy channel, in both asymptotic case and non-…
We demonstrate single-photon interference over 100 km using a balanced gated-mode photon detector and a plug & play system for quantum key distribution. The visibility with 0.1 photon/pulse was more than 80% after 100 km transmission. This corresponds to the fidelity of a quantum cryptography system of more than 90% and a QBER of less than 10%, satisfying the security criteria.
In this letter, first, we investigate the security of a continuous-variable quantum cryptographic scheme with a postselection process against individual beam splitting attack. It is shown that the scheme can be secure in the presence of the transmission loss owing to the postselection. Second, we provide a loss limit for continuous-variable quantum cryptography using coherent states taking into account excess Gaussian noise on quadrature distribution. Since the excess noise is reduced by the loss mechanism, a realistic intercept-resend attack which makes a Gaussian mixture of coherent states g…
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 advanta…
This is a study of the security of the Coherent One-Way (COW) protocol for quantum cryptography, proposed recently as a simple and fast experimental scheme. In the zero-error regime, the eavesdropper Eve can only take advantage of the losses in the transmission. We consider new attacks, based on unambiguous state discrimination, which perform better than the basic beam-splitting attack, but which can be detected by a careful analysis of the detection statistics. These results stress the importance of testing several statistical parameters in order to achieve higher rates of secret bits.
We demonstrate that secure quantum key distribution systems based on continuous variables implementations can operate beyond the apparent 3 dB loss limit that is implied by the beam splitting attack . The loss limit was established for standard minimum uncertainty states such as coherent states. We show that by an appropriate postselection mechanism we can enter a region where Eve's knowledge falls behind the information shared between Alice and Bob even in the presence of substantial losses.
Methods of quantum mechanics promise information-theoretic security for various protocols in cryptography. However, impossibility of some cryptographic applications such as standard bit commitment, oblivious transfer, multiparty secure computations and ideal coin tossing in quantum regime leaves an obvious question on the completeness of quantum cryptography. Instead of using wide range of rules and techniques for a variety of cryptographic applications, we demonstrate here a unified structure for quantum cryptography based on quantum non-local correlations. The unified framework achieves same…
The security of a deterministic quantum scheme for communication, namely the LM05 [1], is studied in presence of a lossy channel under the assumption of imperfect generation and detection of single photons. It is shown that the scheme allows for a rate of distillable secure bits higher than that pertaining to BB84 [2]. We report on a first implementation of LM05 with weak pulses.
We present a time-multiplexed interferometer based on Faraday mirrors, and apply it to quantum key distribution. The interfering pulses follow exactly the same spatial path, ensuring very high stability and self balancing. Use of Faraday mirrors compensates automatically any birefringence effects and polarization dependent losses in the transmitting fiber. First experimental results show a fringe visibility of 0.9984 for a 23km-long interferometer, based on installed telecom fibers.
We report an experimental quantum key distribution that utilizes balanced homodyne detection, instead of photon counting, to detect weak pulses of coherent light. Although our scheme inherently has a finite error rate, it allows high-efficiency detection and quantum state measurement of the transmitted light using only conventional devices at room temperature. When the average photon number was 0.1, an error rate of 0.08 and "effective" quantum efficiency of 0.76 were obtained.
It has previously been shown that the gated detectors of two commercially available quantum key distribution (QKD) systems are blindable and controllable by an eavesdropper using continuous-wave illumination and short bright trigger pulses, manipulating voltages in the circuit [L. Lydersen et al., Nat. Photonics DOI:10.1038/nphoton.2010.214]. This allows for an attack eavesdropping the full raw and secret key without increasing the quantum bit error rate (QBER). Here we show how thermal effects in detectors under bright illumination can lead to the same outcome. We demonstrate that the detecto…
We propose an approach to realize a quantum random number generator (QRNG) based on the photon number decision of weak laser pulses. This type of QRNG can generate true random numbers at a high speed and can be adjusted to zero bias conveniently, thus is suitable for the applications in quantum cryptography.
We present a fast phase gate scheme that is experimentally achievable and has an operation time more than two orders of magnitude faster than current experimental schemes for low numbers of pulses. The gate time improves with the number of pulses following an inverse power law. Unlike implemented schemes which excite precise motional sidebands, thus limiting the gate timescale, our scheme excites multiple motional states using discrete ultra-fast pulses. We use beam-splitters to divide pulses into smaller components to overcome limitations due to the finite laser pulse repetition rate. This pr…
We introduce the concept of a superlinear threshold detector, a detector that has a higher probability to detect multiple photons if it receives them simultaneously rather than at separate times. Highly superlinear threshold detectors in quantum key distribution systems allow eavesdropping the full secret key without being revealed. Here, we generalize the detector control attack, and analyze how it performs against quantum key distribution systems with moderately superlinear detectors. We quantify the superlinearity in superconducting single-photon detectors based on earlier published data, a…
The use of quantum bits (qubits) in cryptography holds the promise of secure cryptographic quantum key distribution schemes. It is based usually on single-photon polarization states. Unfortunately, the implemented ``qubits'' in the usual weak pulse experiments are not true two-level systems, and quantum key distribution based on these imperfect qubits is totally insecure in the presence of high (realistic) loss rate. In this work, we investigate another potential implementation: qubits generated using a process of parametric downconversion. We find that, to first (two-photon) and second (four-…
The existing theory of decoy-state quantum cryptography assumes the exact control of each states from Alice's source. Such exact control is impossible in practice. We develop the theory of decoy-state method so that it is unconditionally secure even there are state errors of sources, if the range of a few parameters in the states are known. This theory simplifies the practical implementation of the decoy-state quantum key distribution because the unconditional security can be achieved with a slightly shortened final key, even though the small errors of pulses are not corrected.
We propose a scheme for multiparty hierarchical quantum-information splitting (QIS) with a multipartite entangled state, where a boss distributes a secret quantum state to two grades of agents asymmetrically. The agents who belong to different grades have different authorities for recovering boss's secret. Except for boss's Bell-state measurement, no nonlocal operation is involved. The presented scheme is also shown to be secure against eavesdropping. Such a hierarchical QIS is expected to find useful applications in the field of modern multipartite quantum cryptography.
This paper presents a hybrid cryptographic protocol, using quantum and classical resources, for authentication and authorization in a network. One or more trusted servers distribute streams of entangled photons to individual resources that seek to communicate. It is assumed that each resource shares a previously distributed secret key with the trusted server, and that resources can communicate with the server using both classical and quantum channels. Resources do not share secret keys with each other, so that the key distribution problem for the network is reduced from O(n^2) to O(n). Some ad…
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.
Security in quantum cryptography is continuously challenged by inventive attacks targeting the real components of a cryptographic setup, and duly restored by new counter-measures to foil them. Due to their high sensitivity and complex design, detectors are the most frequently attacked components. Recently it was shown that two-photon interference from independent light sources can be exploited to avoid the use of detectors at the two ends of the communication channel. This new form of detection-safe quantum cryptography, called Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution (MDI-QKD),…
An efficient quantum cryptography network protocol is proposed with d-dimension polarized photons, without resorting to entanglement and quantum memory. A server on the network, say Alice, provides the service for preparing and measuring single photons whose initial state are |0>. The users code the information on the single photons with some unitary operations. For preventing the untrustworthy server Alice from eavesdropping the quantum lines, a nonorthogonal-coding technique (decoy-photon technique) is used in the process that the quantum signal is transmitted between the users. This protoco…
We discuss several methods for unambiguous state discrimination of N symmetric coherent states using linear optics and photodetectors. One type of measurements is shown to be optimal in the limit of small photon numbers for any N. For the special case of N=4 this measurement can be fruitfully used by the receiving end (Bob) in an implementation of the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol using faint laser pulses. In particular, if Bob detects only a single photon the procedure is equivalent to the standard measurement that he would have to perform in a single-photon implementation of BB84, i…
We present an implementation of photonic qubit precertification that performs the delicate task of detecting the presence of a flying photon without destroying its qubit state, allowing loss-sensitive quantum cryptography and tests of nonlocality even over long distance. By splitting an incoming single photon in two via parametric down-conversion, we herald the photon's arrival from an independent photon source while preserving its quantum information with up to $92.3\pm0.6$ % fidelity. With reduced detector dark counts, precertification will be immediately useful in quantum communication.
We demonstrate a coherent and dynamic beam splitter based on light storage in cold atoms. An input weak laser pulse is first stored in a cold atom ensemble via electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). A set of counter-propagating control fields, applied at a later time, retrieves the stored pulse into two output spatial modes. The high visibility interference between the two output pulses clearly demonstrates that the beam splitting process is coherent. Furthermore, by manipulating the control lasers, it is possible to dynamically control the storage time, the power splitting ratio, the…
Quantum memories are vital to the scalability of photonic quantum information processing (PQIP), since the storage of photons enables repeat-until-success strategies. On the other hand the key element of all PQIP architectures is the beam splitter, which allows to coherently couple optical modes. Here we show how to combine these crucial functionalities by addressing a Raman quantum memory with multiple control pulses. The result is a coherent optical storage device with an extremely large time-bandwidth product, that functions as an array of dynamically configurable beam splitters, and that c…
We analyze the application of bright reference pulses to prevent the photon-number-splitting attack in weak-pulse quantum key distribution. Under the optimal eavesdropping strategy as far as we know, the optimal parameters of bright reference and signal pulses can ensure a secure transmission distance up to 146 km. To realize the quantum key distribution scenario with up-present techniques, we present an experimentally feasible scheme to create a large splitting ratio between bright reference and signal pulses, and to switch the bright reference pulses away from signal pulses to avoid the afte…
We present a continuous variable (CV) quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme based on the CV quantum teleportation of coherent states that yields a raw secret key made up of discrete variables for both Alice and Bob. This protocol preserves the efficient detection schemes of current CV technology (no single-photon detection techniques) and, at the same time, has efficient error correction and privacy amplification schemes due to the binary modulation of the key. We show that for a certain type of incoherent attack it is secure for almost any value of the transmittance of the optical line used b…
The security of source has become an increasingly important issue in quantum cryptography. Based on the framework of measurement-device-independent quantum-key-distribution (MDI-QKD), the source becomes the only region exploitable by a potential eavesdropper (Eve). Phase randomization is a cornerstone assumption in most discrete-variable (DV-) quantum communication protocols (e.g., QKD, quantum coin tossing, weak coherent state blind quantum computing, and so on), and the violation of such an assumption is thus fatal to the security of those protocols. In this paper, we show a simple quantum h…
Decoy-state protocols provide a way to defeat photon-number splitting attacks in quantum cryptography implemented with weak coherent pulses. We point out that previous security analyses of such protocols relied on assumptions about eavesdropping attacks that considered treating each pulse equally and independently. We give an example to demonstrate that, without such assumptions, the security parameters of previous decoy-state implementations could be worse than the ones claimed. Next we consider more general photon-number splitting attacks, which correlate different pulses, and give an estima…
We present theoretical and experimental study of preparing maximally entangled two-photon polarization states, or Bell states, using femtosecond pulse pumped spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). First, we show how the inherent distinguishability in femtosecond pulse pumped type-II SPDC can be removed by using an interferometric technique without spectral and amplitude post-selection. We then analyze the recently introduced Bell state preparation scheme using type-I SPDC. Theoretically, both methods offer the same results, however, type-I SPDC provides experimentally superior methods …
Coherent manipulation of single-photon wave packets is essentially important for optical quantum communication and quantum information processing. In this paper, we realize controllable splitting and modulation of single-photon-level pulses by using a tripod-type atomic medium. The adoption of two control beams enable us to store one signal pulse into superposition of two distinct atomic collective excitations. By controlling the time delay between the two control pulses, we observe splitting of a stored wave packet into two temporally-distinct modes. By controlling the frequency detuning of t…
We report the generation of polarization-entangled photons by femtosecond-pulse-pumped spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a cascade of two type-I crystals. Highly entangled pulsed states were obtained by introducing a temporal delay between the two orthogonal polarization components of the pump field. They exhibited high-visibility quantum interference and a large concurrence value, without the need of post-selection using narrow-bandwidth-spectral filters. The results are well explained by the theory which incorporates the space-time dependence of interfering two-photon amplitudes if d…
The optimal mean photon number (mu) for quantum cryptography is the average photon number per transmitted pulse that results in the highest delivery rate of distilled cryptographic key bits, given a specific system scenario and set of assumptions about Eve's capabilities. Although many experimental systems have employed a mean photon number (mu) of 0.1 in practice, several research teams have pointed out that this value is somewhat arbitrary. In fact, various optimal values for mu have been described in the literature. In this paper we offer a detailed analytic model for an experimental, fiber…
We employ a cascaded system approach to numerically simulate the interaction of photon pulses with a two-level scatterer in a chiral waveguide QED setup. It is possible to expand any pure state of two photons as a superposition of orthogonal two-photon pulses. We show that the scattering of a two-photon pulse of suitable duration may lead to an entangled output state between predominately two equally populated two-photon states. In a complementary wave packet basis, this state is a product state of two orthogonal single photon wave packets. The time reversal of the above scattering process all…
We investigate the spatio-temporal evolution of a Gaussian probe pulse propagating through a four-level $N$-type atomic medium. At two-photon resonance of probe-and control fields, weaker probe pulses may propagate through the medium with low absorption and pulse shape distortion. In contrast, we find that increasing the probe pulse intensity leads to a splitting of the initially Gaussian pulse into a sequence of subpulses in the time domain. The number of subpulses arising throughout the propagation can be controlled via a suitable choice of the probe and control field parameters. Employing a…
The existing decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) beating photon-number-splitting (PNS) attack provides a more accurate method to estimate secure key rate, while it still considers that only single-photon pulses can generate secure keys in any case. However, multiphoton pulses can also generate secure keys if we can confirm that there is no attack. In this paper, under the null hypothesis of no PNS attack, we first determine whether there is an attack or not by retrieving the missing information of the existing decoy-state protocols, extract a Cauchy distribution statistic, and further p…
The first quantum cryptography protocol, proposed by Bennett and Brassard in 1984 (BB84), has been widely studied in the last years. This protocol uses four states (more precisely, two complementary bases) for the encoding of the classical bit. Recently, it has been noticed that by using the same four states, but a different encoding of information, one can define a new protocol which is more robust in practical implementations, specifically when attenuated laser pulses are used instead of single-photon sources [V. Scarani et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 92}, 057901 (2004); referred to as SARG04…