Simplified quantum key distribution implementation secure against state preparation flaws

Authors

• A. Agulleiro
• F. Grünenfelder
• R. Houlmann
• A. Blázquez
• H. Zbinden
• D. Rusca

Abstract

We present a system implementing a three-state BB84 protocol with time-bin encoding, one decoy and a simplified measurement scheme that uses passive basis choice. Our implementation simplifies the state characterization with respect to previous iterations. We also adapt the loss-tolerant method to our protocol, thus dealing with the measured state preparation flaws. We compare the obtained phase error rate and secret key rate when including the state imperfections and when assuming perfect states. Our results highlight the importance of characterization and implementation security.