Continuous-variable quantum key distribution based on photon addition operation*

Abstract

It is shown that the non-Gaussian operations can not only be used to prepare the nonclassical states, but also to improve the entanglement degree between Gaussian states. Thus these operations are naturally considered to enhance the performance of continuous variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD), in which the non-Gaussian operations are usually placed on the right-side of the entangled source. Here we propose another scheme for further improving the performance of CVQKD with the entangled-based scheme by operating photon-addition operation on the left-side of the entangled source. It is found that the photon-addition operation on the left-side presents both higher success probability and better secure key rate and transmission distance than the photon subtraction on the right-side, although they share the same maximal tolerable noise. In addition, compared to both photon subtraction and photon addition on the right-side, our scheme shows the best performance and the photon addition on the right-side is the worst.