23 October 2023

Title: Fully Passive Quantum Key Distribution Protocols

Speaker: Dr. Wenyuan Wang, University of Hong Kong

Abstract of Talk: Quantum key distribution (QKD) uses quantum mechanics to promise information-theoretic security between remote parties, and it has received world-wide attention as a candidate protocol for next-generation secure communications. However, the implementation security of QKD can be undermined by side-channels in practical devices. We propose a framework for building fully passive QKD protocols without using any active modulators, which constitute a major source of side-channels in QKD sources. Such protocols represent a huge step towards building more secure practical QKD systems. In this talk we will introduce the fully passive BB84 protocol we proposed and its experimental demonstration, as well as our more recent results on fully passive twin-field (TF) QKD and continuous-variable (CV) QKD.

Profile of Speaker: Dr. Wenyuan Wang is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) Physics department. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from HKU in 2015 and his PhD degree from the University of Toronto in 2020 under supervision of Prof. Hoi-Kwong Lo. He worked as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Quantum Computing, Waterloo in the group of Prof. Norbert Lutkenhaus for a year and rejoined HKU in 2021. Dr. Wang’s main research interest is quantum communication, especially the design and optimization of quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols, quantum networks, as well as the combination of novel computational techniques (e.g. machine learning and semi-definite programming) with QKD.