Phase-Matching Quantum Key Distribution with Heralded Single-Photon Sources and Local Detection
- 1Jinan University
- 2Shenzhen Polytechnic University
Abstract
Channel loss in long-distance phase-matching quantum key distribution (PM-QKD) amplifies vacuum emissions and dark counts, impairing parameter estimation and limiting secure transmission distance. In this paper, we propose a PM-QKD protocol based on heralded single-photon sources (HSPSs) with local detection. In the key sifting stage, local heralding outcomes are filtered to suppress vacuum-dominated noise and enhance the single-photon fraction of the retained ensemble. A three-intensity decoy-state method is used to estimate the single-photon contribution and bound the phase-error rate. An asymptotic security analysis is provided. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol surpasses the PLOB bound at 316 km and achieves a practical key rate of 10−8 at 496 km, while the conventional PM-QKD protocol based on weak coherent sources reaches the same key rate only at 439 km. These gains are mainly attributed to the vacuum-event filtering strategy, which effectively improves both key-rate performance and transmission distance. Furthermore, our evaluation of a practical threshold detector implementation demonstrates that photon-number-resolving (PNR) detectors are not mandatory to achieve this advantage.
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BibTeX
@article{zeng2026phasematching,
title = {{Phase-Matching Quantum Key Distribution with Heralded Single-Photon Sources and Local Detection}},
author = {Shiya Zeng and Ruobin Zhao and Junyan Luo and Zhiwei Sun and Tingting Song},
journal = {New Journal of Physics},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1088/1367-2630/aeb8b4},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/aeb8b4},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Phase-Matching Quantum Key Distribution with Heralded Single-Photon Sources and Local Detection
AU - Shiya Zeng
AU - Ruobin Zhao
AU - Junyan Luo
AU - Zhiwei Sun
AU - Tingting Song
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/23
JO - New Journal of Physics
DO - 10.1088/1367-2630/aeb8b4
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/aeb8b4
AB - Channel loss in long-distance phase-matching quantum key distribution (PM-QKD) amplifies vacuum emissions and dark counts, impairing parameter estimation and limiting secure transmission distance. In this paper, we propose a PM-QKD protocol based on heralded single-photon sources (HSPSs) with local detection. In the key sifting stage, local heralding outcomes are filtered to suppress vacuum-dominated noise and enhance the single-photon fraction of the retained ensemble. A three-intensity decoy-state method is used to estimate the single-photon contribution and bound the phase-error rate. An asymptotic security analysis is provided. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol surpasses the PLOB bound at 316 km and achieves a practical key rate of 10^−8 at 496 km, while the conventional PM-QKD protocol based on weak coherent sources reaches the same key rate only at 439 km. These gains are mainly attributed to the vacuum-event filtering strategy, which effectively improves both key-rate performance and transmission distance. Furthermore, our evaluation of a practical threshold detector implementation demonstrates that photon-number-resolving (PNR) detectors are not mandatory to achieve this advantage.
SN - 1367-2630
ER -