Related papers: Countermeasure against tailored bright illuminatio…
We present an active anti-latching system for superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. We experimentally test it against a bright-light attack, previously used to compromise security of quantum key distribution. Although our system…
We explore bright-light control of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) in the shunted configuration (a practical measure to avoid latching). In an experiment, we simulate an illumination pattern the SNSPD would receive…
Detector blinding attacks have been proposed in the last few years, and they could potentially threaten the security of QKD systems. Even though no complete QKD system has been hacked yet, it is nevertheless important to consider…
Detector control attacks on quantum key distribution systems exploit the linear mode of avalanche photodiode in single photon detectors. So far, the protocols under consideration have been the BB84 protocol and its derivatives. Here we…
We derive the time-dependent photo-detection probability equation of a superconducting single photon detector (SSPD) to study the responsive property for a pulse train at high repetition rate. Using this equation, we analyze the…
Implementation of high-speed quantum key distribution~(QKD) has become one of the major focus in the field, which produces high key-generation rate for applications. To achieve high-speed QKD, tailored techniques are developed and employed…
In real-life implementations of quantum key distribution (QKD), the physical systems with unwanted imperfections would be exploited by an eavesdropper. Based on imperfections in the detectors, detector control attacks have been successfully…
We control using bright light an actively-quenched avalanche single-photon detector. Actively-quenched detectors are commonly used for quantum key distribution (QKD) in the visible and near-infrared range. This study shows that these…
We developed a countermeasure against blinding attacks on low-noise detectors with a background noise cancellation scheme in quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. Background noise cancellation includes self-differencing and balanced…
We report the fabrication of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SSPD or SNSPD) with an ultralow dark count rate. By introducing optical band-pass filters at the input of the SSPD and cooling the filters at 3 K, the dark…
Semiconductor avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are commonly used for single photon detection in quantum key distribution. Recently, many attacks using bright illumination have been proposed to manipulate gated InGaAs APDs. In order to devise…
The influence of bright light on a single-photon detector has been described in a number of recent publications. The impact on quantum key distribution (QKD) is important, and several hacking experiments have been tailored to fully control…
We experimentally demonstrate that a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector is deterministically controllable by bright illumination. We found that bright light can temporarily make a large fraction of the nanowire length…
We demonstrate a straightforward optoelectronic fiber alignment technique for superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) that exploits the temperature-dependent resistance of the nanowire under optical absorption. The target…
We investigate the detection of an ultra-bright single-photon source using highly efficient superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) at telecom wavelengths. Both the single-photon source and the detectors are characterized…
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are the highest performing photon-counting technology in the near-infrared (NIR). Due to delay-line effects, large area SNSPDs typically trade-off timing resolution and detection…
A photon detector combining the two avalanche photon diodes (APD) has been demonstrated for qubit discrimination in 1550 nm. Spikes accompanied with the signals in gated-mode were canceled by balanced output from the two APDs. The spike…
In the recent decade, it has been discovered that QKD systems are extremely vulnerable to side-channel attacks. In particular, by exploiting the internal working knowledge of practical detectors, it is possible to bring them to an operating…
This paper presents a detailed investigation of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) biased with microwave and direct currents. We developed a hybrid detector, which allows the operation in the rf and dc operation mode.…
We present an alternative approach to the fabrication of highly efficient superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) based on tungsten silicide. Using well-established technologies for the deposition of dielectric mirrors and…