A Directly Modulated Laser Platform for High-Dimensional Quantum Key Distribution

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12819v1
• Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2026 09:20:29 GMT
• Title: A Directly Modulated Laser Platform for High-Dimensional Quantum Key Distribution
• Abstract summary: HD-QKD offers a promising approach to enhance secret key rates beyond binary-encoded QKD.<n>Here, we design and experimentally realize a directly modulated laser platform for HD-QKD.<n>We achieve a record transmission distance of 250 km for HD-QKD, demonstrating its feasibility for long-distance quantum communication.
• Score: 14.695401142457266
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: High-dimensional quantum key distribution (HD-QKD) offers a promising approach to enhance secret key rates beyond conventional binary-encoded QKD, addressing the growing demand for secure data transmission. However, the practical application of most HD-QKD systems has been hindered by their complexity, as they require the preparation and detection of quantum states in large Hilbert spaces. Here, we design and experimentally realize a directly modulated laser platform for HD-QKD. It operates at a repetition rate of 312.5 MHz, yielding a remarkably simple and scalable architecture. Through which, we achieve a record transmission distance of 250 km for HD-QKD, demonstrating its feasibility for long-distance quantum communication. Furthermore, we witness that the four-dimensional states outperform their two-dimensional counterpart in secret key rate, highlighting the practical advantage of high-dimensional encoding. This simple and scalable approach shows strong potential for chip-scale integration.

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