Evaluation of nitrogen- and silicon-vacancy defect centres as single photon sources in quantum key distribution
Matthias Leifgen, Tim Schröder, Friedemann Gädeke, Robert Riemann, Valentin Métillon, Elke Neu, Christian Hepp, Carsten Arend, Christoph Becher, Kristian Lauritsen, Oliver J. Benson · New Journal of Physics · 2014
We demonstrate a quantum key distribution (QKD) testbed for room temperature single photon sources based on defect centres in diamond. A BB84 protocol over a short free-space transmission line is implemented. The performance of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) as well as silicon-vacancy defect (SiV) centres is evaluated. An extrapolation for the future applicability of such sources in quantum information processing is discussed.