Photon Subtraction-Induced Plug-and-Play Scheme for Enhancing Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Discrete Modulation

Abstract

Establishing high-rate secure communications is a potential application of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) but still challenging for the long-distance transmission technology compatible with modern optical communication systems. Here, we propose a photon subtraction-induced plug-and-play scheme for enhancing CVQKD with discrete-modulation (DM), avoiding the traditional loopholes opened by the transmission of local oscillator. A photon subtraction operation is involved in the plug-and-play scheme for detection while resisting the extra untrusted source noise of the DM-CVQKD system. We analyze the relationship between secret key rate, channel losses, and untrusted source noise. The simulation result shows that the photon-subtracted scheme enhances the performance in terms of the maximal transmission distance and make up for the deficiency of the original system effectively. Furthermore, we demonstrate the influence of finite-size effect on the secret key rate which is close to the practical implementation.