Fully passive measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution

The laws of quantum mechanics ensure theoretically secure communication using quantum key distribution (QKD) between two parties. However, practically implementing QKD systems is still a challenge due to the lack of perfect equipment. Hence, physicists have been working on eliminating side channels arising from these imperfections.

Publication Date: June 1, 2024

Authors: Jinjie Li, Wenyuan Wang, and Hoi-Kwong Lo

Abstract:

A recently proposed fully passive quantum key distribution (QKD) removes all source modulator side channels. In this work, we combine fully passive sources with measurement-device-independent (MDI) QKD to simultaneously remove side channels from source modulators and detectors. We show a numerical simulation of passive MDI QKD, and we obtain an acceptable key rate while achieving much better implementation security, as well as ease of implementation, compared with a recently proposed fully passive twin-field QKD, paving the way towards more secure and practical QKD systems. We prove that a fully passive protocol is compatible with MDI QKD and we propose a novel idea that can improve the sifting efficiency.

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