Abstract
Self-stabilizing the quantum key distribution (QKD) system is essential to evaluate eavesdroppers’ information accurately. We develop and verify a polarization-insensitive time-bin decoder chip for QKD with the hybrid asymmetric Faraday-Michelson interferometer (AFMI) based on the planar lightwave circuit (PLC). Compared with existing chip-based QKD works, the scheme can intrinsically compensate for the polarization perturbation to quantum signals and thus work at arbitrary temperatures. We experimentally verify the chips in a time-bin QKD system at the clocking rate of 1.25 GHz and obtain an average secure key rate (SKR) of 1.34 Mbps over a 50 km fiber channel with an optimized analysis model. The steady variations of the quantum bit error and SKR with random polarization disturbance demonstrate that PLC-based AFMIs are available for developing self-stable QKD systems.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFA0306400), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61627820, 61622506, 61822115), Anhui Initiative in Quantum Information Technologies (Grant No. AHY030000). This work was partially carried out at the USTC Center for Micro and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication.
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Zhang, GW., Chen, W., Fan-Yuan, GJ. et al. Polarization-insensitive quantum key distribution using planar lightwave circuit chips. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 65, 200506 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-022-3514-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-022-3514-3