Fast Single Photon Detectors and real-time Key Distillation: Enabling High Secret Key Rate QKD Systems
Authors: Fadri Grünenfelder (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland), Alberto Boaron (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland), Matthieu Perrenoud (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland), Giovanni V. Resta (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland), Davide Rusca (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland), Claudio Barreiro (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland), Raphaël Houlmann (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland), Rebecka Sax (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland), Lorenzo Stasi (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland), Sylvain El-Khoury (ID Quantique SA, Rue Eugène-Marziano 25, CH-1227 Acacias - Genève Switzerland), Esther Hänggi (Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology, Suurstoffi 1, CH-6343 Rotkreuz, Switzerland), Nico Bosshard (Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology, Suurstoffi 1, CH-6343 Rotkreuz, Switzerland), Félix Bussières (ID Quantique SA, Rue Eugène-Marziano 25, CH-1227 Acacias - Genève Switzerland), Hugo Zbinden (Group of Applied Physics, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine 20, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland)
Abstract: Quantum Key Distribution has made continuous progress over the last 20 years and is now commercially available. However, the secret key rates (SKR) are still limited to a few Mbps. Here, we present a custom multipixel superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors and fast acquisition and real-time key distillation electronics, removing two roadblocks and allowing an increase of the SKR of more than an order of magnitude. In combination with a simple 2.5 GHz clocked time-bin quantum key distribution system, we can generate secret keys at a rate of 64 Mbps over a distance of 10.0 km and at a rate of 3.0 Mbps over a distance of 102.4 km with real-time key distillation.
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