High-Performance Fully Passive Discrete-State Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Local Local Oscillator
Yu Zhang, Xuyang Wang, Chenyang Li, Jie Yun, Weilin Liu, Qiang Zeng, Zhiliang Yuan, Yongmin Li, Yongmin Li · Physical Review Letters · 2026
We propose and demonstrate a fully passive discrete-state continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD), which can eliminate all modulator side channels on the source side, using a local local oscillator. Using specially designed phase rotation and discretization methods, the CV-QKD system achieves a maximum fiber transmission length of 100 km at a repetition rate of 1 GHz in asymptotic security, with the corresponding secret key bit rate being 70.7 kbps. In composable security, secret keys are distributed at 25 km of fiber with a secret key bit rate of 1.66 Mbps. Our protocol significantly simplifies the architecture of CV-QKD system by eliminating the need for optical modulators and random number generators as well as presents robust practical security and superior performance, which is comparable to that of its active discrete-state counterpart. Overall, this protocol is expected to play an important role in quantum metropolitan area networks and quantum access networks requiring high realistic security.