Finite-key analysis of a practical decoy-state high-dimensional quantum key distribution

Abstract

Compared with two-level quantum key distribution (QKD), high-dimensional QKD enables two distant parties to share a secret key at a higher rate. We provide a finite-key security analysis for the recently proposed practical high-dimensional decoy-state QKD protocol based on time-energy entanglement. We employ two methods to estimate the statistical fluctuation of the postselection probability and give a tighter bound on the secure-key capacity. By numerical evaluation, we show the finite-key effect on the secure-key capacity in different conditions. Moreover, our approach could be used to optimize parameters in practical implementations of high-dimensional QKD.