Lo, Y. S., Woodward, R. I., Walk, N. et al. (8 more authors) (2023) Simplified intensity- and phase-modulated transmitter for modulator-free decoy-state quantum key distribution. APL Photonics. 036111. ISSN 2378-0967
Abstract
Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows secret key exchange between two users with unconditional security. For QKD to be widely deployed, low cost and compactness are crucial requirements alongside high performance. Currently, the majority of QKD systems demonstrated rely on bulk intensity and phase modulators to generate optical pulses with precisely defined amplitude and relative phase difference i.e., to encode information as signal states and decoy states. However, these modulators are expensive and bulky, thereby limiting the compactness of QKD systems. Here, we present and experimentally demonstrate a novel optical transmitter design to overcome this disadvantage by generating intensity- and phase-tunable pulses at GHz clock speeds. Our design removes the need for bulk modulators by employing directly modulated lasers in combination with optical injection locking and coherent interference. This scheme is, therefore, well suited to miniaturization and photonic integration, and we implement a proof-of-principle QKD demonstration to highlight potential applications.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 Author(s). |
Keywords: | quant-ph |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Economics and Related Studies (York) The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Physics (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 12 Apr 2023 09:40 |
Last Modified: | 12 Dec 2024 00:18 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0128445 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1063/5.0128445 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:198113 |
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Filename: 5.0128445.pdf
Description: Simplified intensity- and phase-modulated transmitter for modulator-free decoy-state quantum key distribution
Licence: CC-BY 2.5