Practical Decoy-State Memory-Assisted Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution
Ming-Shuo Sun, Chunhui Zhang, Hua-Jian Ding, Xingyu Zhou, Jian Li, Qin Wang · Physical Review Applied · 2023
The measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI QKD) can resist all attacks against measurement devices. However, its practical performance is still limited due to very low coincidence counting rates in Bell-state measurements. In this paper, we propose a practical memory-assisted MDI QKD protocol by cooperating the heralded single-photon sources and an all-optical quantum memory. By making use of the heralding characteristic of heralded single-photon sources, the earlier photon will be stored in the Sagnac optical quantum memory, and then released till another photon's arrival. Moreover, by combining with the decoy-state method, the present work exhibits significantly improved key rates and transmission distances compared with all existing MDI QKD protocols without using quantum memories. Therefore, this work can provide valuable references for practical implementation of long-distance quantum communications.