TY - GEN
T1 - Low cost timing interval analyzers for quantum key distribution
AU - Nock, Richard
AU - Dahnoun, Naim
AU - Rarity, John
PY - 2011/7/7
Y1 - 2011/7/7
N2 - The Bristol free space Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system offers a potential solution to possible future security problems. Within the Bristol QKD system there is no shared clock between Alice, intended to be a mobile phone chipset and Bob the Quantum Automatic Teller Machine (QATM). Therefore instead of sharing a clock, a Timing Interval Analyzer is used to timestamp all incident photons in Bob. As Alice's repetition rate is fixed and known, it is possible to distinguish Alice's photons from that of dark counts and ambient light. The TIA produced in house to do this time stamping process has a resolution of 30.5 picoseconds and a single shot RMS measurement error of 35.2 picoseconds, whilst using off the shelf components. Although the TIA is used within a QKD system it has wider applications within other photonics experiments in particular that of time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC).
AB - The Bristol free space Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system offers a potential solution to possible future security problems. Within the Bristol QKD system there is no shared clock between Alice, intended to be a mobile phone chipset and Bob the Quantum Automatic Teller Machine (QATM). Therefore instead of sharing a clock, a Timing Interval Analyzer is used to timestamp all incident photons in Bob. As Alice's repetition rate is fixed and known, it is possible to distinguish Alice's photons from that of dark counts and ambient light. The TIA produced in house to do this time stamping process has a resolution of 30.5 picoseconds and a single shot RMS measurement error of 35.2 picoseconds, whilst using off the shelf components. Although the TIA is used within a QKD system it has wider applications within other photonics experiments in particular that of time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC).
KW - Instrumentation and measurement
KW - Measurement techniques
KW - Pulse measurements
KW - Time measurement
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80051869726&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5944324
U2 - 10.1109/IMTC.2011.5944324
DO - 10.1109/IMTC.2011.5944324
M3 - Conference publication
AN - SCOPUS:80051869726
SN - 9781424479351
T3 - Conference Record - IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference
SP - 475
EP - 479
BT - 2011 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, I2MTC 2011 - Proceedings
PB - IEEE
T2 - 2011 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, I2MTC 2011
Y2 - 10 May 2011 through 12 May 2011
ER -