Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) allows the distribution of cryptographic keys between multiple users in an information-theoretic secure way, exploiting quantum physics. While current QKD systems are mainly based on attenuated laser pulses, deterministic single-photon sources could give concrete advantages in terms of secret key rate (SKR) and security owing to the negligible probability of multi-photon events. Here, we introduce and demonstrate a proof-of-concept QKD system exploiting a molecule-based single-photon source operating at room temperature and emitting at 785nm. With an estimated SKR of 0.5 Mbps, our solution paves the way for room-temperature single-photon sources for quantum communication protocols.
@article{arxiv.2202.12635,
title = {Efficient room-temperature molecular single-photon sources for quantum key distribution},
author = {Ghulam Murtaza and Maja Colautti and Michael Hilke and Pietro Lombardi and Francesco Saverio Cataliotti and Alessandro Zavatta and Davide Bacco and Costanza Toninelli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.12635},
year = {2023}
}