Bonn 2025 – scientific programme
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QI: Fachverband Quanteninformation
QI 32: Quantum Communication II: Implementations (joint session QI/Q)
QI 32.2: Talk
Thursday, March 13, 2025, 14:45–15:00, HS IX
A Compact Receiver for Polarisation Encoded BB84 Quantum Key Distribution — •Michael Steinberger1,2, Moritz Birkhold1,2, Michael Auer1,2,3, Adomas Baliuka1,2, Harald Weinfurter1,2,4, and Lukas Knips1,2,4 — 1Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), Munich, Germany — 2Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST), Munich, Germany — 3Universität der Bundeswehr, Neubiberg, Germany — 4Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), Garching, Germany
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) provides secure exchange of shared secret keys, solely by exploiting the laws of quantum mechanics. Free-space optical communication allows for a range of different QKD use-cases, including short ground-to-ground links for urban environments up to key exchange with stallites. Current hardware uses telescopes with complex optics and highly efficient single-photon detection devices. To make QKD suitable for scenarios offering less space and profiting from a higher degree in mobility, our goal is to develop a very compact and integrated detection system for polarization-encoded BB84 QKD. We show how using a CMOS single photon avalanche detector array (provided by the Technical University of Vienna) with new compact electronics - trading in performance - the scalability and integrability can be clearly increased. Together with a microoptics based concept this enables a miniaturized polarisation analysis unit (PAU) on the millimeter scale.
Keywords: Quantum Key Distribution; QKD; BB84 Receiver; CMOS SPADs; Polarization Analysis