Abstract
Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) provide a compact and stable platform for quantum photonics. Here we demonstrate a silicon photonics quantum key distribution (QKD) transmitter in the first high-speed polarization-based QKD field tests. The systems reach composable secret key rates of 950 kbps in a local test (on a 103.6-m fiber with a total emulated loss of 9.2 dB) and 106 kbps in an intercity metropolitan test (on a 43-km fiber with 16.4 dB loss). Our results represent the highest secret key generation rate for polarization-based QKD experiments at a standard telecom wavelength and demonstrate PICs as a promising, scalable resource for future formation of metropolitan quantum-secure communications networks.
Highlights
Quantum key distribution (QKD) remains the only quantum-resistant method of sending secret information at a distance [1,2]
Our results demonstrate how silicon photonics—supported by the currently existing complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology—can pave the way for a high-speed metropolitan-scale quantum communication network
To illustrate the progress entailed by our results, we summarize our work in Table I along with recent demonstrations of high-speed polarization-based QKD and other discrete-variable QKD field tests
Summary
Quantum key distribution (QKD) remains the only quantum-resistant method of sending secret information at a distance [1,2]. While polarization remains an attractive choice for free-space QKD due to its robustness against turbulence [23,24,25,26,27,28], polarization is commonly thought to be unstable for fiber-based QKD For this reason, there has been strong interest in translating the polarization QKD components into photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which provide a compact and phase-stable platform capable of correcting for polarization drifts in the channel. Channel loss) intercity test between the cities of Cambridge and Lexington, we generated secret keys at a rate of 157 kbps and observed a bit error rate 2.8% Both QKD operations are demonstrated to be secure against collective attacks in a composable security framework with a tight security parameter of εsec 1⁄4 10−10. Our results demonstrate how silicon photonics—supported by the currently existing CMOS technology—can pave the way for a high-speed metropolitan-scale quantum communication network
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