IEEE Photonic Technology Letters

Discrete Variable Quantum Key Distribution in Millimeter-Wave and

THz Regions

V. F. Guedes, F. A. Mendonca, J. B. R. Silva, R. V. Ramos

Abstract — Quantum key distribution allows secure II. GLOW DISCHARGE DEVICE-BASED SINGLE-PHOTON
communication between spatially distant users. It has been DETECTOR IN THE MILLIMETER-WAVE AND THZ REGIONS
successfully implemented in the infrared portion of the spectrum
in both, fiber-based and free space optical channels. A natural step
to be followed is to realize QKD in other portions of the Miniature neon indicator lamps are GDDs that have been
electromagnetic spectrum, like microwave and millimeter-wave used in direct and heterodyne detection of microwave and
regions. In this direction, the present work discusses the MMW [15-22]. The detection by the GDD can be inferred from
implementation of the B92 QKD protocol in millimeter-wave using two ways: I) Slight variation of the GDD electrical current. II)
glow discharge device-based single-photon detector.
Slight variation of the power of the light emitted by the lamp.
Index Terms — Single-photon detector, quantum key
In the first case, although the internal gain of the GDD (due to
distribution, millimeter-wave, THz, glow discharge detectors. the cascade of ionizations) seems to be very high, the power of
a single-photon in the MMW region is very low, making the
I. INTRODUCTION electrical current variation very hard to be detected in practice.
In the second case, the GDD works as an up-converter device,
absorbing MMW or THz photons and emitting visual light [20].
Q uantum key distribution (QKD) was the first commercially
available quantum technology, implemented using the
infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, that allows
The last is the operation mode used in the GDD-based SPD.
Electrons accelerated by the electrical field between the lamp
terminals increase their kinetic energy slightly by absorbing
secure communication between spatially distant users [1-5]. It
MMW/THz radiation, allowing them to participate in the
has been successfully implemented in fiber-based and free-
ionization and excitation processes by colliding with atoms.
space optical networks. The implementation of QKD in the
When the atom is excited after a lifetime it releases the energy
infrared region was possible because single-photon detectors
emitting a photon in the visual light wavelength. The photon
(SPDs) in this region are easily built with silicon and InGaAs
emitted is detected by silicon avalanche photodiode (Si-SPD).
avalanche photodiodes (APD) or superconductors [6-10]. On
Hence, the single-photon detector here considered is composed
the other hand, the 5G and 6G technologies are promising a
by a GDD working in the up-converter mode and a silicon
plethora of new services [11] that will impact the industry,
APD-based SPD [23]. The scheme is shown in Fig. 1.
economy and peoples’ lives. Nevertheless, quantum services
are not included in this package. In this direction, it is natural to
consider the realization of quantum protocols, like QKD, using
microwave (30-300GHz) or millimetric wave (MMW) (0.3–
10THz) in order to provide a very high security level for those
services. The firsts attempt in this direction used continuous
variable QKD protocol, thermal light states and homodyne
detection [12-14]. Up to now they have not been implemented. Fig. 1. Detection of MMW single-photon using a miniature neon lamp
Here, we have a different proposal, we discuss how to working in the up-converter mode and a silicon APD-based SPD detector.
implement the discrete variable B92 QKD protocol using SPDs
that work in the MMW region. This SPD uses a glow discharge A discharge can be fired when the voltage applied to GDD
device (GDD), a miniature neon indicator lamp, operating in is larger than the breakdown voltage, VB. Hence, the GDD is
operated in the Geiger mode: the GDD is fed by a DC power
the up-conversion mode. Thus, differently of earlier proposals,
supply V in series with a signal generator the produces a narrow
our scheme uses discrete variable, coherent states and direct
electrical pulse with peak voltage VG only when a MMW
detection. Therefore, our scheme is cheap and it can be
photon is expected to arrive. In this moment one has V + VG >
implemented with current technology. VB. The probability of the GDD to emit light when a MMW is
The present work is outlined as follows: in Section II the absorbed can be modelled as [23]
SPD in the MMW portion of the spectrum is reviewed; in
PG = 1 − e−G (1 − pdG ) .
Section III the QKD protocol is explained and the conclusions
(1)
are drawn in Section IV.
 IEEE Photonic Technology Letters

electric field are orthogonal). This polarization dependence is

In (1),  is the mean photon number of the MMW, G is the relevant when one is measuring the variation of the electrical
quantum efficiency of the GDD, that is, the probability of the current however, it is not clear if it is relevant for the single-
MMW photon to be absorbed and at least one energetic electron photon detection operation, since in this case a strong or self-
to excite an atom that will suffer a radiative decay. At last, pdG sustained cascade ionization is not required. Hence, the QKD
is the probability of a photon to be emitted by the GDD when protocol used will consider the MMW/THz always aligned with
none MMW photon was absorbed. The light emitted by the the electric field of the DC source.
GDD is thermal light since the same electron can excite more The QKD protocol here considered is the B92 protocol [2-
than one atom and, hence, more than one photon can be emitted 4]. The sender (Alice) will send MMW/THz single-photons
per time. Since thermal light photon number distribution is with polarization randomly chosen in the set {0, /4}. The
given by 𝑝𝑛 = 𝜇𝑡𝑛 ⁄(1 + 𝜇𝑡 )1+𝑛 the probability of the Si-SPD to horizontal polarization 0 is chosen with probability p0 while
flag photon detection is the diagonal polarization /4 is chosen with probability p1. For
each photon sent by Alice, the receiver (Bob) will choose with
PT = 1 − (1 − pd ) (1 + t ) . (2) probability ½ if the polarization of the incident photon will be
or not rotated by /4. Bob’s detection scheme is shown in Fig.
2.
In (2) t is the mean photon number of the thermal state
produced by the GDD while  and pd are, respectively, the
quantum efficiency and the dark count probability of the Si-
SPD. Since the probability of the GDD to emit a light pulse with
mean photon number t is given by PG in eq. (1), t depends on
the values of G and pdG.
It is well known the GDD’s ionization coefficient, , is Fig. 2 – Bob’s detection scheme. The PBS are polarizing beam splitters and
given by: D0,1 are GDD-single-photon detectors.

 = pA exp ( − Bp / (VT / d ) ) , (3) According to the rules of B92 QKD protocol, when Alice
sends a photon in the polarization state 0 and Bob applies the
/4 rotation (left part of Fig. 2), with probability ½ the photon
where A and B are gas-specific and are derived from
will be guided to detector D0. If D0 fires, a bit ‘0’ is recorded.
experiments, p is the pressure, d is the distance between the
On the other hand, when Alice sends a photon in the
electrodes and VT is the voltage applied to the GDD. As a first
polarization state /4 and Bob does not apply the /4 rotation
approximation, one has t = d (considering the probability
(right part of Fig. 2), with probability ½ the photon will be
of an ionization equal to the probability of a radiative decay).
guided to detector D1. If D1 fires, a bit ‘1’ is recorded. All the
Here,  takes into account the coupling efficiency of light other situations are discarded (detections in D?). Bob has to
emitted by the GDD in the active region of the Si-APD. inform Alice the time slots he got valid detections. As usual, the
Therefore, the probability of MMW/THz single-photon detection of a spy (Eve) is inferred from the bit error rate
detection is (QBER). For a short channel (tens of meters) and negligible
multipath dispersion, basically one has QBER = PdGPT.
  Bp   In order to implement the B92 protocol, Alice and Bob uses
PT = 1 − (1 − pd ) 1 +  dpA exp  −   . (4)
 (V / d )  
a scheme similar to the one shown in [22], as shown in Fig. 3


Equation (4) gives the photon detection probability as a

function of the incident MMW/THz radiation (mean photon
number - ), GDD’s parameters (A, B, p, d and VT), Si-SPD
parameters ( and pd) and the GDD/Si-SPD optical coupling
(). For example, using  = 0.1, pd = 10-5,  = 0.5,  = 0.5,  =
2300m-1 and d = 3 mm, one gets PT = 0.1471, per gate window
of the Geiger mode.

III. QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION IN THE MILLIMETER-WAVE

AND THZ REGIONS USING GDD-SINGLE-PHOTON DETECTORS Fig. 3 – Scheme for realization of B92 QKD protocol with MMW.

The polarization modulated MMW beam is coupled out to

The GDD is sensitive to the polarization of the incident
free space using a horn antenna. The horn antenna was placed
radiation [21,22]. The responsivity at 0 rad rotation (the electric
field of incident beam is parallel to the electric field between in the focal plane of an off-axis dish that collimates the MMW
the electrodes of the GDD) is noticeably higher than the radiation and reflects it to a second off-axis dish that focuses
responsivity at /2 rotation (when the DC field and the THz the radiation on the GDD. Considering 0 the mean photon
number of the MMW emitted by the horn antenna. The mean
 IEEE Photonic Technology Letters

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