A. Rubenok, J. A. Slater, P. Chan, I. Lucio-Martinez, W. Tittel
Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises the distribution of cryptographic keys whose secrecy is guaranteed by fundamental laws of quantum physics. After more than two decades devoted to the improvement of theoretical understanding and experimental realization, recent results in quantum hacking have reminded us that the information theoretic security of QKD protocols does not necessarily imply the same level of security for actual implementations. Of particular concern are attacks that exploit vulnerabilities of single photon detectors. Here we report the first proof-of-principle demonstration of a QKD protocol that removes the threat of any such attack. Our fiber-based implementation took advantage of three different locations within the city of Calgary. Its simplicity and robustness to environment-induced property variations of deployed optical fibers, along with the enhanced level of security offered by the protocol, confirms QKD as a viable technology for safeguarding secrets in transmission.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0738
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