dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaSimple protocol for secure decoy-state quantum key distribution with a loosely controlled source
| Authors | Xiang-Bin Wang, Cheng-Zhi Peng, Jian-Wei Pan |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0609137 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0609137 |
| DOI | 10.1063/1.2431718 |
| Journal | Appl. Phys. Lett., 90, 031110(2007) |
Abstract
The method of decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) requests different intensities of light pulses. Existing theory has assumed exact control of intensities. Here we propose a simple protocol which is secure and efficient even there are errors in intensity control. In our protocol, decoy pulses and signal pulses are generated from the same father pulses with a two-value attenuation. Given the upper bound of fluctuation of the father pulses, our protocol is secure provided that the two-value attenuation is done exactly. We propose to use unbalanced beam-splitters for a stable attenuation. Given that the intensity error is bounded by $\pm5%$, with the same key rate, our method can achieve a secure distance only 1 km shorter than that of an ideal protocol with exactly controlled source.
{
"annotation_id": "4fd63f9a-0b91-479c-8bd4-74457d7c288a",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:30.810000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:30.810000Z",
"file_hash": "f5b633e9a1655728500362c60afec1b17b18b9e4ba910218f3cbb442bff522f2",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "The method of decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) requests different\nintensities of light pulses. Existing theory has assumed exact control of\nintensities. Here we propose a simple protocol which is secure and efficient\neven there are errors in intensity control. In our protocol, decoy pulses and\nsignal pulses are generated from the same father pulses with a two-value\nattenuation. Given the upper bound of fluctuation of the father pulses, our\nprotocol is secure provided that the two-value attenuation is done exactly. We\npropose to use unbalanced beam-splitters for a stable attenuation. Given that\nthe intensity error is bounded by $\\pm5%$, with the same key rate, our method\ncan achieve a secure distance only 1 km shorter than that of an ideal protocol\nwith exactly controlled source.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0609137",
"authors": [
"Xiang-Bin Wang",
"Cheng-Zhi Peng",
"Jian-Wei Pan"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1063/1.2431718",
"journal_ref": "Appl. Phys. Lett., 90, 031110(2007)",
"title": "Simple protocol for secure decoy-state quantum key distribution with a loosely controlled source",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0609137"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "f5a05c21-5865-40ff-a755-3db3c152dfd0",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}