Experimental quantum secure direct communication with single photons

Apr 7, 2016
5 pages
Published in:
  • Light Sci. Appl. 5 (2016) 9, e16144
  • Published: Apr 7, 2016

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Abstract: (Springer)
Quantum secure direct communication is an important mode of quantum communication in which secret messages are securely communicated directly over a quantum channel. Quantum secure direct communication is also a basic cryptographic primitive for constructing other quantum communication tasks, such as quantum authentication and quantum dialog. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of quantum secure direct communication based on the DL04 protocol and equipped with single-photon frequency coding that explicitly demonstrated block transmission. In our experiment, we provided 16 different frequency channels, equivalent to a nibble of four-bit binary numbers for direct information transmission. The experiment firmly demonstrated the feasibility of quantum secure direct communication in the presence of noise and loss. A new protocol for quantum communication that works in the presence of channel noise and loss has been experimentally demonstrated. Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) involves sending messages securely and directly over a quantum channel. Now, Jianyong Hu and co-workers from Shanxi University and Tsinghua University have developed a single-photon frequency coding scheme for QSDC. The protocol operates by encoding information into the frequency spectrum of a block of single photons rather than into the individual photons themselves. Analysis suggests that the scheme is more robust against channel noise and loss, which usually severely degrade quantum communication. It also eliminates the need for quantum error correction. Experiments implementing the frequency coding scheme with 16 frequency channels (to represent binary numbers 0000 to 1111) achieved a transmission rate of 4 kilobytes per second.
  • Fibre optics and optical communications
  • Quantum optics
  • block transmission
  • channel loss and noise
  • DL04 protocol
  • quantum secure direct communication
  • single-photon frequency coding
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