Likang Zhang

We demonstrate a practical high-performance mode-pairing quantum key distribution system that is able to surpass the repeaterless key rate bound using commercial lasers. We propose a frequency tracking scheme to address phase fluctuations and a theoretical model to analyze the phase noise and optimize the system parameters. Our system achieves a secret key rate of 47.8 bit/s over 403 km standard fiber, which is 2.92 times of the repeaterless bound. Furthermore, we compare the performance between MP-QKD and no-phase-locking TF-QKD under various practical conditions and show that MP-QKD exhibits superior performance at short distances with low error rates, while TF-QKD is more advantageous for long distances with consistent error rates.

We report a quantum key distribution system that is able to generate key at a record high key rate of 115.8 Mb/s over 10-km standard fibre. This attributes to a high-efficiency multi-pixel superconducting nanowire detector, a low-error integrated transmitter, and a fast post-processing algorithm.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) can provide information-theoretic security governed by the law of quantum physics. Toward real-life applications, secret key rate is a key figure of merit of the QKD system. Here we demonstrate a 2.5-GHz polarization-encoding QKD system with an integrated silicon photonic transmitter that is able to generate a secret key rate of 2.42±0.04 Mbps over 101-km standard telecom fibers (19.6-dB loss). Such high rate attributes to the high clock-rate transmission and the ultra-low quantum bit error rate of 0.49%. The scalability, miniaturization and stability offered by silicon photonic technologies along with high-key-rate performance indicate that our system is a promising solution for large-scale deployment of QKD.

One of the most significant vulnerabilities in the source unit of quantum key distribution~(QKD) is the correlation between quantum states after modulation, which shall be characterized and evaluated for its practical security performance. In this work, we propose a methodology to characterize the intensity correlation according to the single-photon detection results in the measurement unit without modifying the configuration of the QKD system. In contrast to the previous research that employs extra classical optical detector to measure the correlation, our method can directly analyse the detection data generated during the raw key exchange, enabling to characterize the feature of correlation in real-time system operation. The basic method is applied to a BB84 QKD system and the characterized correlation significantly decreases the secure key rate shown by the security proof. Furthermore, the method is extended and applied to characterize the correlation from the result of Bell-state measurement, which demonstrates its applicability to a running full-scheme MDI QKD system. This study provides an approach for standard certification of a QKD system.