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1310 nm Differential Phase Shift QKD System Using Superconducting Single Photon Detectors

Published

Author(s)

Xiao Tang, Lijun Ma, Sae Woo Nam, Burm Baek, Oliver T. Slattery, Alan Mink, Hai Xu, Tiejun Chang

Abstract

We have implemented a differential-phase-shift (DPS) quantum key distribution (QKD) system at 1310 nm with superconducting single photon detectors (SSPD). The timing jitter of the SSPDs is small and its dark counts are very low. 1310 nm is an ideal quantum signal wavelength for a QKD system, where quantum signals coexist with classical communication signals at 1550 nm in one fiber. As the key element in the DPS QKD, a Michelson interferometer was designed and built using Faraday mirrors that can automatically compensate for the polarization evolution in the fiber. As the result, our DPS QKD system can be steadily operated at 2.5 Ghz clock rate with a low quantum error rate of less than 4%.
Citation
New Journal of Physics
Volume
11

Keywords

differential phase shift, optical fiber communication, quantum key distribution, superconducting single photon detector

Citation

Tang, X. , Ma, L. , Nam, S. , Baek, B. , Slattery, O. , Mink, A. , Xu, H. and Chang, T. (2009), 1310 nm Differential Phase Shift QKD System Using Superconducting Single Photon Detectors, New Journal of Physics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=900974 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created April 30, 2009, Updated February 19, 2017