Hoi-Kwong Lo

Passive quantum key distribution (QKD) has been proposed for discrete variable (DV) protocols to eliminate side channels in the source. Unfortunately, the key rate of passive DV-QKD protocols suffers from sifting loss and additional quantum errors. In this work, we propose the general framework of passive continuous variable quantum key distribution. Rather surprisingly, we find that the passive source is a perfect candidate for the discrete-modulated continuous variable quantum key distribution (DMCV QKD) protocol. With the phase space remapping scheme, we show that passive DMCV QKD offers the same key rate as its active counterpart. Considering the important advantage of removing side channels that have plagued the active ones, passive DMCV QKD is a promising alternative. In addition, our protocol makes the system much simpler by allowing modulator-free quantum key distribution. Finally, we experimentally characterize the passive DMCV QKD source, thus showing its practicality.

We propose a fully-passive twin-field quantum key distribution (QKD) setup where basis choice, decoy-state preparation and encoding are all implemented entirely by post-processing without any active modulation. Our protocol can remove the potential side-channels from both source modulators and detectors, and additionally retain the high key rate advantage offered by twin-field QKD, thus offering great implementation security and good performance. Importantly, we also propose a post-processing strategy that uses mismatched phase slices and minimizes the effect of sifting. We show with numerical simulation that the new protocol can still beat the repeaterless bound and provide satisfactory key rate.

The twin-field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol and its variants are highly attractive because they can beat the well-known fundamental limit of secret key rate for point-to-point (point-to-point bound) QKD without quantum repeaters. In this paper, we perform a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration of TF-QKD based on the protocol proposed by Curty et al., which removes the need for post-selection on the matching of a global phase from the original TF-QKD. Furthermore, we employ a Sagnac loop structure to overcome the major difficulty in the practical implementation of TF-QKD, namely, the need to stabilize the phase of the quantum state over kilometers of fiber. The experimental results show that the secret key rate of TF-QKD at high loss region can surpass the point-to-point bound of QKD with current technology.

Twin-field quantum key distribution (TFQKD) systems have shown great promise for implementing practical long-distance secure quantum communication due to its measurement-device-independent nature and its ability to offer fundamentally superior rate-loss scaling than conventional point-to-point QKD systems. A surge of research has produced many variants of protocols and experimental demonstrations. To make TFQKD more applicable in quantum communication, a study of TFQKD in a networking setting is essential. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate a proof-of-principle Sagnac-interferometer based TFQKD network with three users and one untrusted central node. We show that our network enables users to share secure keys with channel losses up to 58dB, and channel loss asymmetric up to 15dB. In some cases, the secure key rates still beat the rate-loss bounds for conventional point-to-point repeaterless QKD systems. It is to our knowledge the first multi-user-pair TFQKD network demonstration, an important step in advancing quantum communication network technologies.

We identify a time-dependent passive source side-channel in common measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution implementations that rely on Faraday mirrors for stable phase modulation. We model the time-dependence of the side channel and use this information in conjunction with a recently developed numerical security proof technique based on semidefinite programming to quantify the impact on the secure key rate of the protocol. We explore the sensitivity of security to the parameters of the side channel and the choice of model for the signal.

Twin-Field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) can beat the linear bound of repeaterless QKD systems. After the proposal of the original protocol, multiple papers have extended the protocol to prove its security. However, these works are limited to the case where the two channels have equal amount of loss (i.e. are symmetric). In a practical network setting, it is very likely that the channels are asymmetric due to e.g. geographical locations. In this work we extend a version of the TF-QKD protocol to the scenario with asymmetric channels. We show that by simply adjusting the two signal states of the two users (and not necessarily the decoy states) they can effectively compensate for channel asymmetry and consistently obtain higher key rate than either using no compensation or using the strategy of deliberately adding fibre to the shorter channel. We perform simulation with realistic parameters and finite data size, and show that our method works well and has a clear advantage over prior art methods in the presence of channel asymmetry.

The security of measurement device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI QKD) relies on a thorough characterization of one's optical source output, especially any noise in the state preparation process. Here, we provide an extension of the loss-tolerant protocol [Phys. Rev. A 90, 052314 (2014)], a leading proof technique for analyzing the security of QKD, to MDI QKD protocols that employ mixed signal states. We first reframe the core of the proof technique, noting its generalization to treat d-dimensional signal encodings. Concentrating on the qubit signal state case, we find that the mixed states can be interpreted as providing Alice and Bob with a virtual shield system they can employ to reduce Eve's knowledge of the secret key. We then introduce a simple semidefinite programming method for optimizing the virtual twisting operations they can perform on the shield system to yield a higher key rate, along with an example calculation of fundamentally achievable key rates in the case of random polarization modulation error.

We present an analysis for real-life implementations of measurement-device-independent quantum-key-distribution (MDI-QKD): a general system model, an optimized finite-decoy protocol and a rigorous finite-key analysis. This is of particular interest both to researchers hoping to demonstrate MDI-QKD and to others performing non-QKD experiments involving quantum interference.