Experimental quantum key distribution beyond the repeaterless secret key capacity
14:25 - 14:45
Mariella Minder, Mirko Pittaluga, George Roberts, Marco Lucamarini, James Dynes, Zhiliang Yuan and Andrew Shields Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows users to generate shared encryption keys that are guaranteed to be theoretically secure by the laws of quantum mechanics. There is a fundamental rate-distance limit in practical QKD that was thought to be unsurpassable with current technology. The recent Twin-Field QKD (TF-QKD) protocol promises to overcome this limit and predicts the same square root dependence of key rate on channel loss as a quantum repeater, using twin light fields to carry quantum information. Here we provide the first experimental validation of this by implementing TF-QKD over channel losses exceeding 90dB.
