We present a protocol for sending a message over a quantum channel with different layers of security that will prevent an eavesdropper from deciphering the message without being detected. The protocol has t
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a simple and efficient scheme for photonic communication between two remote superconducting modules. Each module consists of a random access quantum information processor with eight-qubit multimode memory and a single flux tunable transmon. The two processor chips are connected through a one-meter long coaxial cable that is coupled to a dedicated communication resonator on each chip. The two communication resonators hybridize with a mode of the cable to form a dark communication mode that is highly immune to decay in the coaxial cable. We modulate the transmon frequency via a parametric drive to generate sideband interactions between the transmon and the communication mode. We demonstrate bidirectional single-photon transfer with a success probability exceeding 60 %, and generate an entangled Bell pair with a fidelity of 79.3 $pm$ 0.3 %.
Quantum communication provides an absolute security advantage, and it has been widely developed over the past 30 years. As an important branch of quantum communication, quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) promotes high security and instantaneousness in communication through directly transmitting messages over a quantum channel. The full implementation of a quantum protocol always requires the ability to control the transfer of a message effectively in the time domain; thus, it is essential to combine QSDC with quantum memory to accomplish the communication task. In this paper, we report the experimental demonstration of QSDC with state-of-the-art atomic quantum memory for the first time in principle. We used the polarization degrees of freedom of photons as the information carrier, and the fidelity of entanglement decoding was verified as approximately 90%. Our work completes a fundamental step toward practical QSDC and demonstrates a potential application for long-distance quantum communication in a quantum network.
No-cloning theorem, a profound fundamental principle of quantum mechanics, also provides a crucial practical basis for secure quantum communication. The security of communication can be ultimately guaranteed if the output fidelity via communication channel is above the no-cloning bound (NCB). In quantum communications using continuous-variable (CV) systems, Gaussian states, more specifically, coherent states have been widely studied as inputs, but less is known for non-Gaussian states. We aim at exploring quantum communication covering CV states comprehensively with distinct sets of unknown states properly defined. Our main results here are (i) to establish the NCB for a broad class of quantum non-Gaussian states including Fock states, their superpositions and Schrodinger-cat states and (ii) to examine the relation between NCB and quantum non-Gaussianity (QNG). We find that NCB typically decreases with QNG. Remarkably, this does not mean that quantum non-Gaussian states are less demanding for secure communication. By extending our study to mixed-state inputs, we demonstrate that QNG specifically in terms of Wigner negativity requires more resources to achieve output fidelity above NCB in CV teleportation. The more non-Gaussian, the harder to achieve secure communication, which can have crucial implications for CV quantum communications.
Quantum communication is developed owing to the theoretically proven security of quantum mechanics, which may become the main technique in future information security. However, most studies and implementations are limited to two or several parties. Herein, we propose a fully connected quantum communication network without a trusted node for a large number of users. Using flexible wavelength demultiplex/multiplex and space multiplex technologies, 40 users are fully connected simultaneously without a trusted node by a broadband energy-time entangled photon pair source. This network architecture may be widely deployed in real scenarios such as companies, schools, and communities owing to its simplicity, scalability, and high efficiency.
Quantum communication holds promise for absolutely security in secret message transmission. Quantum secure direct communication is an important mode of the quantum communication in which secret messages are securely communicated over a quantum channel directly. It has become one of the hot research areas in the last decade, and offers both high security and instantaneousness in communication. It is also a basic cryptographic primitive for constructing other quantum communication tasks such as quantum authentication, quantum dialogue and so on. Here we report the first experimental demonstration of quantum secure direct communication with single photons. The experiment is based on the DL04 protocol, equipped with a simple frequency coding. It has the advantage of being robust against channel noise and loss. The experiment demonstrated explicitly the block data transmission technique, which is essential for quantum secure direct communication. In the experiment, a block transmission of 80 single photons was demonstrated over fiber, and it provides effectively 16 different values, which is equivalent to 4 bits of direct transmission in one block. The experiment has firmly demonstrated the feasibility of quantum secure direct communication in the presence of noise and loss.