A stable long-distance quantum key distribution system

Abstract

A stable long-distance quantum key distribution system which has been just completed in our laboratory is demonstrated in this paper. The idea of “plug and pl ay" was adopted to automatically compensate the polarization mode dispersion and phase shift. A symmetrical capacitance-balance technique and magic-T network were used in the single-photon detection module, wherein a detection efficiency of more than 5% and a dark count probability of lower than 29×10-6/p ulse were achieved. As a result, we have realized stable (longer than 12 h) quantum k ey distribution experiment in 506 km single mode fiber with mean photon number of 007 and quantum bit error rate of 4%.