Quantum entanglement

Physics

Key distribution

Public-key cryptography

Qubit

Key (lock)

Quantum cryptography

Encryption

Quantum information

Eavesdropping

Computer science

Quantum mechanics

Theoretical computer science

Quantum key distribution

Key exchange

Computer security

Quantum

Nature

Cryptographic key exchange protocols traditionally rely on computational conjectures such as the hardness of prime factorization1 to provide security against eavesdropping attacks. Remarkably, quantum key distribution protocols such as the Bennett–Brassard scheme2 provide information-theoretic security against such attacks, a much stronger form of security unreachable by classical means. However, quantum protocols realized so far are subject to a new class of attacks exploiting a mismatch between the quantum states or measurements implemented and their theoretical modelling, as demonstrated in numerous experiments3–6. Here we present the experimental realization of a complete quantum key distribution protocol immune to these vulnerabilities, following Ekert’s pioneering proposal7 to use entanglement to bound an adversary’s information from Bell’s theorem8. By combining theoretical developments with an improved optical fibre link generating entanglement between two trapped-ion qubits, we obtain 95,628 key bits with device-independent security9–12 from 1.5 million Bell pairs created during eight hours of run time. We take steps to ensure that information on the measurement results is inaccessible to an eavesdropper. These measurements are performed without space-like separation. Our result shows that provably secure cryptography under general assumptions is possible with real-world devices, and paves the way for further quantum information applications based on the device-independence principle. This study demonstrates the experimental realization of a complete protocol for quantum key distribution using entangled trapped strontium ions with device-independent quantum security guarantees.

Experimental quantum key distribution certified by Bell's theorem