Practical Continuous-variable Quantum Key Distribution with Feasible Optimization Parameters

Abstract: Continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) offers an approach to achieve a potential high secret key rate (SKR) in metropolitan areas. There are several challenges in developing a practical CV-QKD system from the laboratory to the real world. One of the most significant points is that it is really hard to adapt different practical optical fiber conditions for CV-QKD systems with unified hardware. Thus, how to improve the performance of practical CV-QKD systems in the field without modification of the hardware is very important. Here, a systematic optimization method, combining the modulation variance and error correction matrix optimization, is proposed to improve the performance of a practical CV-QKD system with a restricted capacity of postprocessing. The effect of restricted postprocessing capacity on the SKR is modeled as a nonlinear programming problem with modulation variance as an optimization parameter, and the selection of an optimal error correction matrix is studied under the same scheme. The results show that the SKR of a CV-QKD system can be improved by 24% and 200% compared with previous frequently used optimization methods theoretically with a transmission distance of 50 km. Furthermore, the experimental results verify the feasibility and robustness of the proposed method, where the achieved optimal SKR achieved practically deviates <1.6% from the theoretical optimal value. Our results pave the way to deploy high-performance CV-QKD in the real world.