Key-rate enhancement using qutrit states for quantum key distribution with askew aligned sources
Yonggi Jo, Wonmin Son · Physical Review A · 2016
It is known that measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) provides ultimate security from all types of side-channel attack on detectors at the expense of low key rate. In the present study, we propose MDI-QKD using three-dimensional quantum states and show that the protocol improves the secret key rate under the analysis of mismatched-basis statistics. Specifically, we analyze security of the $3d$-MDI-QKD protocol with askew aligned sources, meaning that the original sources contain unwanted states instead of the expected one. We evaluate the secret key rate of the protocol and identify the regime in which the key rate is higher than the protocol with the qubit MDI-QKD.