Security aspects of practical quantum cryptography

Authors:
Gilles Brassard;Norbert Lütkenhaus;Tal Mor;Barry C. Sanders
Affiliations:
Département IRO, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada;Helsinki Institute of Physics, Helsingin yliopisto, Finland;Electrical Engineering, College of Judea and Samaria, Ariel, Israel and Electrical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA;Department of Physics, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Venue:
EUROCRYPT'00 Proceedings of the 19th international conference on Theory and application of cryptographic techniques
Year:
2000

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Abstract

The use of quantum bits (qubits) in cryptography holds the promise of secure cryptographic quantum key distribution schemes. Unfortunately, the implemented schemes are often operated in a regime which excludes unconditional security. We provide a thorough investigation of security issues for practical quantum key distribution, taking into account channel losses, a realistic detection process, and modifications of the "qubits" sent from the sender to the receiver. We first show that even quantum key distribution with perfect qubits might not be achievable over long distances when fixed channel losses and fixed dark count errors are taken into account. Then we show that existing experimental schemes (based on weak pulses) currently do not offer unconditional security for the reported distances and signal strength. Finally we show that parametric downconversion offers enhanced performance compared to its weak coherent pulse counterpart.