Longer distance continuous variable quantum key distribution protocol with photon subtraction at the receiver

Abstract

One of the limitations of continuous variable quantum key distribution is the relatively short transmission distance of secure keys. Some solutions have been proposed to overcome the limitation including reverse reconciliation, trusted noise concept, and non-Gaussian operation. In this paper, we propose a protocol using photon subtraction at the receiver, which combines the synergetic benefits of the aforementioned approaches. Using simulations, we show that the performance of the proposed protocol outperforms other conventional protocols. The results showed that an improvement in secure key distance can be obtained using a non-Gaussian operation, depending on the position where the operation is performed, similar to the trusted noise concept. Furthermore, the result implies existence of some Gaussian operations which increases security without using a beam splitter.