Hong-Ou-Mandel test to verify indistinguishability of the states emitted from a quantum key distribution transmitter implementing decoy Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol

TL;DR

This paper introduces a practical HOM interference-based method to verify pulse indistinguishability in QKD transmitters, ensuring security without assumptions on specific degrees of freedom.

Contribution

It establishes the theoretical link between HOM visibility and quantum state fidelity and experimentally validates the method on a high-speed decoy BB84 QKD system.

Findings

HOM visibility around 0.3 across different states

No significant difference in pulse indistinguishability detected

Method confirms modulation does not affect pulse indistinguishability

Abstract

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems require rigorous verification of device properties to ensure implementation security. A critical requirement is the indistinguishability of transmitted pulses encoded by different modulation patterns, as distinguishability through non-encoded degrees of freedom could enable undetected eavesdropping. We present a practical method for testing pulse indistinguishability in QKD transmitters based on Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference. We establish the theoretical equivalence between the SWAP test and HOM measurement for characterizing quantum state fidelity, demonstrating that HOM visibility directly relates to the trace of density matrix products for phase-randomized weak coherent pulses. We experimentally validated this approach using a high-speed QKD transmitter implementing the decoy BB84 protocol with time-bin encoding at 1.25 GHz. HOM interference was measured between adjacent pulses prepared in different Bennett-Brassard 1984 states (X0, X1, Y0, Y1) using superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. The observed HOM visibility was approximately 0.3 across all state combinations, with no statistically significant differences detected. These results confirm that modulation does not compromise pulse indistinguishability in our transmitter. The HOM test provides a practical, quantum-optical method for security certification of QKD systems without requiring assumptions about specific degrees of freedom, using only standard fiber-optic components and single-photon detectors.