High-speed and high-performance polarization-
based quantum key distribution system without
side channel effects caused by multiple lasers
HEASIN KO,
1,3
BYUNG-SEOK CHOI,
1
JOONG-SEON CHOE,
1
KAP-JOONG KIM,
1
JONG-HOI KIM,
1
AND
CHUN JU YOUN
1,2,
*
1
Photonic/Wireless Convergence Components Research Division, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute,
Daejeon 34129, South Korea
2
School of Advanced Device Technology, University of Science & Technology, Daejeon 34113, South Korea
3
e-mail: seagod.ko@etri.re.kr
*Corresponding author: cjyoun@etri.re.kr
Received 15 November 2017; revised 8 January 2018; accepted 17 January 2018; posted 19 January 2018 (Doc. ID 313600);
published 28 February 2018
Side channel effects such as temporal disparity and intensity fluctuation of the photon pulses caused by random
bit generation with multiple laser diodes in high-speed polarization-based BB84 quantum key distribution
(QKD) systems can be eliminated by increasing the DC bias current condition. However, background photons
caused by the spontaneous emission process under high DC bias current degrade the performance of QKD
systems. In this study, we investigated the effects of spontaneously emitted photons on the system performance
in a high-speed QKD system at a clock rate of 400 MHz. Also, we show further improvements in the system
performance without side channel effects by utilizing the temporal filtering technique with real-time field-
programmable gate array signal processing.
© 2018 Chinese Laser Press
OCIS codes: (270.5565) Quantum communications; (270.5568) Quantum cryptography; (140.5960) Semiconductor lasers.
https://doi.org/10.1364/PRJ.6.000214
1. INTRODUCTION
A free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) system provides
the availability of unconditionally secure key exchanges
between two distant parties without a fiber network infrastruc-
ture. Polarization is normally adopted as a physical observable
for free-space QKD systems, and it has been largely studied and
demonstrated in diverse situations such as moving platform [1],
aircraft [2], long distance [3], and daylight conditions [4].
Recently, successful distribution of entangled photon pairs
over a distance of 1200 km using a quantum satellite [5] and
satellite-to-ground QKD [6] was reported, which arouses ex-
pectations that unconditionally secure bit exchanges through
a global network will be feasible in the near future.
However, such unconditional quantum security is only guaran-
teed with implementations where all components, both in the
sender and receiver, are properly operated without any device
loopholes [7–11].
In most free-space QKD systems, multiple semiconductor
lasers with passive optics are utilized to randomly generate four
different polarization states [1–6]. One of the polarization
states can be transmitted by turning on one of the laser diodes
exclusively for each time slot. We recently reported on side
channel effects in random bit generation with multiple laser
diodes in a polarization-based QKD system [11]. In that paper,
we clearly showed that the temporal position and intensity
of the photon pulses from each laser diode can vary widely
depending on the time interval between consecutive pulses
from a single laser, which is called temporal disparity and in-
tensity fluctuation. Although this issue is extremely critical in
terms of the security of polarization-based QKD systems with
multiple laser diodes, it has not been clearly investigated
because these effects are not severe for speeds of operation
of 100 MHz or lower, which are adopted in most representative
free-space QKD demonstrations [1– 4]. However, these side
channel effects apparently do occur in high-speed QKD sys-
tems, especially under conditions of low DC bias current
injected into laser diodes, due to the dynamics of the initial
carrier density and photon density. Since unconditional security
is threatened by these side channel effects, such effects must be
eliminated in the physical implementation, which can be
accomplished by increasing the DC bias current injected into
the laser diodes. Unfortunately, as a result, the performance
of the QKD system will be unavoidably degraded due to
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Vol. 6, No. 3 / March 2018 / Photonics Research
Research Article
2327-9125/18/030214-06 Journal © 2018 Chinese Laser Press