Frequency-bin-encoded entanglement-based quantum key distribution in a reconfigurable frequency-multiplexed network

Anahita Khodadad Kashi; Michael Kues

doi:10.1038/s41377-024-01696-8

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Frequency-bin-encoded entanglement-based quantum key distribution in a reconfigurable frequency-multiplexed network

Original Articles

- Frequency-bin-encoded entanglement-based quantum key distribution in a reconfigurable frequency-multiplexed network
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 2, Pages: 441-456(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Institute of Photonics, Leibniz University Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany
  2.Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD (Photonics, Optics, Engineering – Innovation Across Disciplines), Leibniz University Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany
- Author bio：
  
  Michael Kues (Michael.kues@iop.uni-hannover.de)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-024-01696-8
  CLC：
- Received：11 June 2024，
  
  Revised：13 November 2024，
  
  Accepted：2024-11-17，
  
  Published Online：16 January 2025，
  
  Published：28 February 2025
- Accepted：
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Kashi, A. K. & Kues, M. Frequency-bin-encoded entanglement-based quantum key distribution in a reconfigurable frequency-multiplexed network. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 441-456 (2025).
DOI：

Kashi, A. K. & Kues, M. Frequency-bin-encoded entanglement-based quantum key distribution in a reconfigurable frequency-multiplexed network. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 441-456 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-024-01696-8.

摘要

Abstract

Large-scale quantum networks require dynamic and resource-efficient solutions to reduce system complexity with maintained security and performance to support growing number of users over large distances. Current encoding schemes including time-bin

polarization

and orbital angular momentum

suffer from the lack of reconfigurability and thus scalability issues. Here

we demonstrate the first-time implementation of frequency-bin-encoded entanglement-based quantum key distribution and a reconfigurable distribution of entanglement using frequency-bin encoding. Specifically

we demonstrate a novel scalable frequency-bin basis analyzer module that allows for a passive random basis selection as a crucial step in quantum protocols

and importantly equips each user with a single detector rather than four detectors. This minimizes massively the resource overhead

reduces the dark count contribution

vulnerability to detector side-channel attacks

and the detector imbalance

hence providing an enhanced security. Our approach offers an adaptive frequency-multiplexing capability to increase the number of channels without hardware overhead

enabling increased secret key rate and reconfigurable multi-user operations. In perspective

our approach enables dynamic resource-minimized quantum key distribution among multiple users across diverse network topologies

and facilitates scalability to large-scale quantum networks.

关键词

Keywords

references

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