Abstract

A new technique for phase tracking in quantum cryptography systems is proposed that adjusts phase in an optimal way, using only as many photon counts as necessary. We derive an upper bound on the number of photons that need to be registered during phase adjustment to achieve a given phase accuracy. It turns out that most quantum cryptosystems can successfully track phase on a single-photon level, entirely with software, without any additional hardware components or extensive phase-stabilization measures. The technique is tested experimentally on a quantum cryptosystem.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

Differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution experiment with a planar light-wave circuit Mach–Zehnder interferometer

T. Honjo, K. Inoue, and H. Takahashi
Opt. Lett. 29(23) 2797-2799 (2004)

Experimental demonstration of a local active phase compensation method for a phase encoding quantum key distribution system

Yue Zhang, Junyue Yin, Huiqing Zhao, Jindong Wang, Ruili Ma, Zihao Liu, Jiahao Wei, Yafei Yu, Zhengjun Wei, and Zhiming Zhang
Appl. Opt. 61(26) 7713-7718 (2022)

Practical quantum key distribution with polarization entangled photons

A. Poppe, A. Fedrizzi, R. Ursin, H. R. Böhm, T. Lorünser, O. Maurhardt, M. Peev, M. Suda, C. Kurtsiefer, H. Weinfurter, T. Jennewein, and A. Zeilinger
Opt. Express 12(16) 3865-3871 (2004)

Stable quantum key distribution using a silicon photonic transceiver

Wei Geng, Chao Zhang, Yunlin Zheng, Jiankun He, Cheng Zhou, and Yunchuan Kong
Opt. Express 27(20) 29045-29054 (2019)

Differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution using heralded narrow-band single photons

Chang Liu, Shanchao Zhang, Luwei Zhao, Peng Chen, C. -H. F. Fung, H. F. Chau, M. M. T. Loy, and Shengwang Du
Opt. Express 21(8) 9505-9513 (2013)