Entanglement-based quantum communication secured by nonlocal dispersion cancellation

Quantum key distribution (QKD) enables participants to exchange secret information over long distances with unconditional security. However, the performance of today's QKD systems is subject to hardware limitations, such as those of available nonclassical-light sources and single-photon detecto...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lee, Catherine, Zhang, Zheshen, Steinbrecher, Gregory R., Zhou, Hongchao, Mower, Jacob, Zhong, Tian, Wang, Ligong, Hu, Xiaolong, Horansky, Robert D., Verma, Varun B., Lita, Adriana E., Mirin, Richard P., Marsili, Francesco, Shaw, Matthew D., Nam, Sae Woo, Wornell, Gregory W., Wong, Franco N. C., Shapiro, Jeffrey H., Englund, Dirk Robert
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92715
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5125-8023
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5150-7800
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1998-6159
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6094-5861
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9895-0191
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8668-8162
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9166-4758
Description
Summary:Quantum key distribution (QKD) enables participants to exchange secret information over long distances with unconditional security. However, the performance of today's QKD systems is subject to hardware limitations, such as those of available nonclassical-light sources and single-photon detectors. By encoding photons in high-dimensional states, the rate of generating secure information under these technical constraints can be maximized. Here, we demonstrate a complete time-energy entanglement-based QKD system with proven security against the broad class of arbitrary collective attacks. The security of the system is based on nonlocal dispersion cancellation between two time-energy entangled photons. This resource-efficient QKD system is implemented at telecommunications wavelength, is suitable for optical fiber and free-space links, and is compatible with wavelength-division multiplexing.