High-dimensional quantum key distribution implemented with biphotons

Abstract We present a high-dimensional measurement device-independent (MDI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol employing biphotons to encode information. We exploit the biphotons as qutrits to improve the tolerance to error rate. Qutrits have a larger quantum system; hence they carry more bits...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Comfort Sekga, Mhlambululi Mafu, Makhamisa Senekane
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2023-01-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28382-w
_version_ 1828056934404587520
author Comfort Sekga
Mhlambululi Mafu
Makhamisa Senekane
author_facet Comfort Sekga
Mhlambululi Mafu
Makhamisa Senekane
author_sort Comfort Sekga
collection DOAJ
description Abstract We present a high-dimensional measurement device-independent (MDI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol employing biphotons to encode information. We exploit the biphotons as qutrits to improve the tolerance to error rate. Qutrits have a larger quantum system; hence they carry more bits of classical information and have improved robustness against eavesdropping compared to qubits. Notably, our proposed protocol is independent of measurement devices, thus eliminating the possibility of side-channel attacks. Also, we employ the finite key analysis approach to study the performance of our proposed protocol under realistic conditions where finite resources are used. Furthermore, we simulated the secret key rate for the proposed protocol in terms of the transmission distance for different fixed amounts of signals. The results prove that this protocol achieves a considerable secret key rate for a moderate transmission distance of 90 km by using $$10^{16}$$ 10 16 signals. Moreover, the expected secret key rate was simulated to examine our protocol’s performance at various intrinsic error rate values, $$Q=(0.3\%,0.6\%,1\%)$$ Q = ( 0.3 % , 0.6 % , 1 % ) caused by misalignment and instability due to the optical system. These results show that reasonable key rates are achieved with a minimum data size of about $$10^{14}$$ 10 14 signals which are realizable with the current technology. Thus, implementing MDI-QKD using finite resources while allowing intrinsic errors due to the optical system makes a giant step forward toward realizing practical QKD implementations.
first_indexed 2024-04-10T21:03:17Z
format Article
id doaj.art-826674990648478b8f3735cbb450e966
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2045-2322
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-10T21:03:17Z
publishDate 2023-01-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series Scientific Reports
spelling doaj.art-826674990648478b8f3735cbb450e9662023-01-22T12:09:52ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-01-0113111310.1038/s41598-023-28382-wHigh-dimensional quantum key distribution implemented with biphotonsComfort Sekga0Mhlambululi Mafu1Makhamisa Senekane2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Botswana International University of Science and TechnologyDepartment of Physics, Case Western Reserve UniversityInstitute for Intelligent Systems, University of JohannesburgAbstract We present a high-dimensional measurement device-independent (MDI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol employing biphotons to encode information. We exploit the biphotons as qutrits to improve the tolerance to error rate. Qutrits have a larger quantum system; hence they carry more bits of classical information and have improved robustness against eavesdropping compared to qubits. Notably, our proposed protocol is independent of measurement devices, thus eliminating the possibility of side-channel attacks. Also, we employ the finite key analysis approach to study the performance of our proposed protocol under realistic conditions where finite resources are used. Furthermore, we simulated the secret key rate for the proposed protocol in terms of the transmission distance for different fixed amounts of signals. The results prove that this protocol achieves a considerable secret key rate for a moderate transmission distance of 90 km by using $$10^{16}$$ 10 16 signals. Moreover, the expected secret key rate was simulated to examine our protocol’s performance at various intrinsic error rate values, $$Q=(0.3\%,0.6\%,1\%)$$ Q = ( 0.3 % , 0.6 % , 1 % ) caused by misalignment and instability due to the optical system. These results show that reasonable key rates are achieved with a minimum data size of about $$10^{14}$$ 10 14 signals which are realizable with the current technology. Thus, implementing MDI-QKD using finite resources while allowing intrinsic errors due to the optical system makes a giant step forward toward realizing practical QKD implementations.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28382-w
spellingShingle Comfort Sekga
Mhlambululi Mafu
Makhamisa Senekane
High-dimensional quantum key distribution implemented with biphotons
Scientific Reports
title High-dimensional quantum key distribution implemented with biphotons
title_full High-dimensional quantum key distribution implemented with biphotons
title_fullStr High-dimensional quantum key distribution implemented with biphotons
title_full_unstemmed High-dimensional quantum key distribution implemented with biphotons
title_short High-dimensional quantum key distribution implemented with biphotons
title_sort high dimensional quantum key distribution implemented with biphotons
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28382-w
work_keys_str_mv AT comfortsekga highdimensionalquantumkeydistributionimplementedwithbiphotons
AT mhlambululimafu highdimensionalquantumkeydistributionimplementedwithbiphotons
AT makhamisasenekane highdimensionalquantumkeydistributionimplementedwithbiphotons