Experimental study of four-state reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution with source flaws
Abstract
Reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution (RFI-QKD) has been proposed as a method to avoid the requirement of real-time alignment of reference frames. However, the source flaw has not been considered in most of the previously reported works. In this paper, based on the analysis of Wang et al. [Phys. Rev. A 92, 042319 (2015), 10.1103/PhysRevA.92.042319], we perform a proof-of-concept experiment to demonstrate the loss-tolerant RFI-QKD by constructing a time-bin phase-encoded system and quantifying its source flaws. Moreover, the finite-key analysis is taken into account while estimating the secure key rate. Our experimental demonstration makes a positive contribution to the realization of quantum cryptography in a complex and imperfect real-world environment.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review A
- Pub Date:
- March 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevA.99.032309
- Bibcode:
- 2019PhRvA..99c2309W