Experimental Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution over 1000km Fiber Distance.

Abstract

Quantum key distribution (QKD) aims to generate secure private keys shared by two remote parties. With its security being protected by principles of quantum mechanics, some technology challenges remain towards practical application of QKD. The major one is the distance limit, which is caused by the fact that a quantum signal cannot be amplified while the channel loss is exponential with the distance for photon transmission in optical fiber. Here using the 3-intensity sending-or-not-sending protocol with the actively-odd-parity-pairing method, we demonstrate a fiber-based twin-field QKD over 1002km. In our experiment, we developed a dual-band phase estimation and ultra-low noise superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors to suppress the system noise to around 0.02Hz. The secure key rate is 9.53×10^{-12} per pulse through 1002km fiber in the asymptotic regime, and 8.75×10^{-12} per pulse at 952km considering the finite size effect. Our work constitutes a critical step towards the future large-scale quantum network.