Experimental resources needed to implement photon number splitting attack in quantum cryptography

Astro Ltd., find out more Letter Experimental resources needed to implement photon number splitting attack in quantum cryptography S P Kulik1, K S Kravtsov1 and S N Molotkov4,2,3 Published 13 January 2022 • © 2022 Astro Ltd Laser Physics Letters, Volume 19, Number 2 Citation S P Kulik et al 2022 Laser Phys. Lett. 19 025203 DOI 10.1088/1612-202X/ac46cb Article metrics 135 Total downloads 1 1 citation on Dimensions. MathJax Turn on MathJax Permissions Get permission to re-use this article Share this article Share this content via email Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Mendeley (opens new window) Article and author information Abstract The analysis of the security of quantum key distribution systems with respect to an attack with nondemolishing measurement of the number of photons (photon number splitting—PNS attack) is carried out under the assumption that in the communication channel in each parcel there is a pure Fock state with a different number of photons, and the distribution of states by number of photons has Poisson statistics. In reality, in the communication channel in each parcel there are not individual Fock states, but a pure coherent state with a random phase—a superposition of Fock states with different numbers of photons. The paper analyzes the necessary experimental resources necessary to prepare individual Fock states with a certain number of photons from the superposition of Fock states for a PNS attack. Optical schemes for implementing such an attack are given, and estimates of experimental parameters at which a PNS attack is possible are made.