Experimental setup for quantum cryptography by means of single polarized photons
V. L. Kurochkin, I. I. Ryabtsev, Igor G. Neizvestny · Technical Physics · 2005
Pioneering experiments on single-photon quantum cryptography that are performed with a tailored setup are reported. The key is transferred by pulsed semiconductor lasers, which encode the polarization state of the photons in two mutually nonorthogonal bases. Photon detectors are based on C30902S silicon avalanche photodiodes. For a laser pulse repetition rate of 100 kHz and a mean number of photons per pulse of about 0.2, the key generation rate reaches ≈4 kbit/s. The error rate in the key does not exceed 1%.