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Direct and full-scale experimental verifications towards ground–satellite quantum key distribution

Nature Photonics volume 7, pages 387–393 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Quantum key distribution (QKD) provides the only intrinsically unconditional secure method for communication based on the principle of quantum mechanics. Compared with fibre-based demonstrations, free-space links could provide the most appealing solution for communication over much larger distances. Despite significant efforts, all realizations to date rely on stationary sites. Experimental verifications are therefore extremely crucial for applications to a typical low Earth orbit satellite. To achieve direct and full-scale verifications of our set-up, we have carried out three independent experiments with a decoy-state QKD system, and overcome all conditions. The system is operated on a moving platform (using a turntable), on a floating platform (using a hot-air balloon), and with a high-loss channel to demonstrate performances under conditions of rapid motion, attitude change, vibration, random movement of satellites, and a high-loss regime. The experiments address wide ranges of all leading parameters relevant to low Earth orbit satellites. Our results pave the way towards ground–satellite QKD and a global quantum communication network.

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Figure 1: Schematic of experimental set-up.
Figure 2: Photographs of the QKD receiver and transmitter terminals.
Figure 3: Tracking error of the ATP system in the satellite orbiting simulation using a turntable.
Figure 4: Tracking error of the ATP system in the satellite vibration simulation using a hot-air balloon.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the staff of the Qinghai Lake National Natural Reserve Utilization Administration Bureau, especially Y-B. He and Z. Xing, for their support during the experiment. This work was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the National Fundamental Research Program (grant no. 2011CB921300).

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  1. Jian-Yu Wang and Bin Yang: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, Shanghai Branch, University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai, 201315, China

    Jian-Yu Wang, Bin Yang, Sheng-Kai Liao, Qi Shen, Xiao-Fang Hu, Yan-Lin Tang, Hao Liang, Ji-Gang Ren, Ge-Sheng Pan, Juan Yin, Yu-Ao Chen, Kai Chen, Cheng-Zhi Peng & Jian-Wei Pan

  2. Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200083, China

    Jian-Yu Wang, Sheng-Kai Liao, Liang Zhang, Jin-Cai Wu, Shi-Ji Yang, Hao Jiang, Yi-Hua Hu & Jian-Jun Jia

  3. College of Information Science and Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Bo Zhong & Wei-Yue Liu

  4. The Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610209, China

    Yong-Mei Huang & Bo Qi

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Contributions

C-Z.P and J-W.P. conceived the idea for the experiments. J-Y.W., C-Z.P. and J-W.P. designed the experiments. B.Y., S-K.L., Q.S., X-F.H., J-C.W., H.L., J.Y., J-G.R., G-S.P. and C-Z.P. designed the QKD devices. J-Y.W., S-K.L., L.Z., J-C.W., S-J.Y., H.J., Y-H.H., Y-M.H., B.Q., J-J.J. and C-Z.P. designed the ATP devices. S-K.L., L.Z., X-F.H., Y-L.T., B.Z. and W-Y.L. designed the software. All authors performed the experiments. B.Y., W-Y.L., K.C., Y-A.C., C-Z.P. and J-W.P. analysed the data. B.Y., K.C., Y-A.C., C-Z.P. and J-W.P. wrote the paper. J-W.P. supervised the entire project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Cheng-Zhi Peng or Jian-Wei Pan.

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Wang, JY., Yang, B., Liao, SK. et al. Direct and full-scale experimental verifications towards ground–satellite quantum key distribution. Nature Photon 7, 387–393 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.89

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