SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.111 issue7-8Mesoporous ethanesilica materials with bimodal and trimodal pore-size distributions synthesised in the presence of cobalt ionsThe effect of certain N-tritylated phenylalanine conjugates of amino-adenosine-3',5'-cyclic monophosphate on moloney murine leukaemia virus reverse transcriptase activity author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Services on Demand

Article

Indicators

Related links

  • On index processCited by Google
  • On index processSimilars in Google

Share


South African Journal of Science

On-line version ISSN 1996-7489
Print version ISSN 0038-2353

Abstract

PILLAY, Sharmini; MIRZA, Abdul R.  and  PETRUCCIONE, Francesco. Towards polarisation-encoded quantum key distribution in optical fibre networks. S. Afr. j. sci. [online]. 2015, vol.111, n.7-8, pp.1-6. ISSN 1996-7489.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/SAIS.2015/20130380.

Quantum key distribution - a process that encodes digital information - often utilises fibre optic technologies for commercial applications. Fibre provides the benefit of a dark channel as well as the convenience of independence of a line-of-sight connection between the sender and receiver. In order to implement quantum key distribution protocols utilising polarisation encoding, the birefringence effects of fibre must be compensated for. Birefringence is caused by manufacturing impurities in the fibre or a change in environmental conditions and results in a rotation of the state of polarisation of light as it is propagated through the fibre. With dynamic environmental conditions, the birefringence effects should be monitored with a test signal at regular time intervals so that the polarisation of each photon can be appropriately compensated to its original state. Orthogonal states are compensated simultaneously, but most protocols, such as BB84 and B92, require non-orthogonal basis sets. Instead of using a compensator for each basis, the presented scheme fixes the polarisation controller onto the plane on the Poincaré that passes through both bases, compensating both non-orthogonal bases simultaneously.

Keywords : QKD; cryptography; polarisation encoding; fibre network; single photon.

        · text in English     · English ( pdf )

 

Creative Commons License All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License