Polarization Encoded Quantum Key Distribution over Special Optical Fibres

Employing a polarization compensator, an optical fibre quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on polarization coding has been developed. To obtain the compensator setting parameters, the measurement of the laser pulse polarization is performed with one single photon detector. We obtain a sifted key bit rate of about 2kbits/s and a qubit error rate lower than 10% within 3.5h. It is shown that polarization coding can be used for QKD over optical fibres as well. At the same time, the system is simple, easy to operate, practical and user-friendly. It gains more advantages than other systems over optical fibres when used in local area quantum communications and where the functional agility is important.