Host Institute: University of Düsseldorf

Project Supervisor: Prof. Dagmar Bruß

ESR: Carlo Liorni

Starting date: September 2017

Duration: 3 years

Project Description

The PhD student will investigate long-distance quantum key distribution  based on a combination of satellite (i.e. free space) and quantum repeater (i.e. fibre-based) links. In such a scenario, the satellite links covers areas over which fibre-based repeater networks are either not yet developed or too costly to be installed, e.g., under the oceans. The project is mainly theoretical, but has some links to experimental implementations. The researcher will study theoretically the performance limits that each approach (satellite and repeater) can individually achieve (using the so-called measurement-device-independent setting) and will conduct a comparison between the two approaches for certain distances of interest, using both the currently available technologies and those we foresee to obtain in the future. S/he will then investigate an integrated link and find out how the overall performance can be improved. With the help of experimentalists at Padova, a free-space link will be designed to simulate the satellite link. The project covers topics from different areas (repeaters, satellites, security analysis, networks) and it is correspondingly supported by relevant expertise at various partners.

Project Outcomes

To be updated.