Room temperature single-photon detectors for high bit rate quantum key distribution

Journal Article · Mon Jan 13 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4855515· OSTI ID:22275808

Comandar, L. C.; Patel, K. A. ^[1]; Lucamarini, M.; Sharpe, A. W.; Dynes, J. F.; Yuan, Z. L.; Shields, A. J. ^[1]; Penty, R. V. ^[2]

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1. Toshiba Research Europe Ltd., 208 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 0GZ (United Kingdom)
2. Engineering Department, Cambridge University, 9 J J Thomson Ave., Cambridge CB3 0FA (United Kingdom)

We report room temperature operation of telecom wavelength single-photon detectors for high bit rate quantum key distribution (QKD). Room temperature operation is achieved using InGaAs avalanche photodiodes integrated with electronics based on the self-differencing technique that increases avalanche discrimination sensitivity. Despite using room temperature detectors, we demonstrate QKD with record secure bit rates over a range of fiber lengths (e.g., 1.26 Mbit/s over 50 km). Furthermore, our results indicate that operating the detectors at room temperature increases the secure bit rate for short distances.

• OSTI ID: 22275808
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 2; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
GAMMA DETECTION
INDIUM ARSENIDES
PHOTODIODES
PHOTONS
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K