Continuous Variable Quantum Key Distribution with a Noisy Laser

Abstract

Existing experimental implementations of continuous-variable quantum key distribution require shot-noise limited operation, achieved with shot-noise limited lasers. However, loosening this requirement on the laser source would allow for cheaper, potentially integrated systems. Here, we implement a theoretically proposed prepare-and-measure continuous-variable protocol and experimentally demonstrate the robustness of it against preparation noise stemming for instance from technical laser noise. Provided that direct reconciliation techniques are used in the post-processing we show that for small distances large amounts of preparation noise can be tolerated in contrast to reverse reconciliation where the key rate quickly drops to zero. Our experiment thereby demonstrates that quantum key distribution with non-shot-noise limited laser diodes might be feasible.

10 pages, 6 figures. Corrected plots for reverse reconciliation

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• Gaussian one-way thermal quantum cryptography with finite-size effects
• Secret key capacity of the thermal-loss channel: Improving the lower bound
• Analysis of the trusted-device scenario in continuous-variable quantum key distribution
• Improving the lower bound to the secret-key capacity of the thermal amplifier channel
• Multimode non-Gaussian secure communication under mode-mismatch