Host Institute: University of Vigo

Project Supervisor: Prof. Marcos Curty

ESR: Margarida Pereira

Starting date: September 2017

Duration: 3 years

Project Description

A PhD position is available on a project to analyze the security of practical QKD systems. QKD has attracted a lot of interest in recent years because, in theory, it offers unconditional security based on the laws of physics. In practice, however, at the moment it does not, because typical security proofs of QKD include assumptions that are not actually met by current implementations, as they usually ignore many experimental device imperfections. This means that these proofs cannot be applied to practical realisations because real devices behave differently from the theoretical models that are assumed in the proofs. This project aims to fill in this big gap between the theory and the practice of QKD by developing efficient security proof methods for the finite sample-size setting scenario that can include typical devices’ flaws (such as, for instance, state preparation flaws or intensity fluctuations) to be applied to QKD experiments, particularly to decoy-state-based QKD platforms. In addition, this project will develop performance optimisation techniques for various decoy-state QKD protocols and system architectures. The work will be carried out in close connection with other relevant partners in the network.

Project Outcomes

To be updated.