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Strong light illumination on gain-switched semiconductor lasers helps the eavesdropper in practical quantum key distribution systems

2018/03/15 by Yang-Yang Fei, Yangyang Fei, Xiangdong Meng +5
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Diode #Laser #Materials science #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photon #Physics #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum key distribution #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Semiconductor #Semiconductor laser theory #Wavelength #physics.optics #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2018.03.029

published as optics communications,2018 · Accepted by Optics Communications. 7 Figures

arxiv created 2018/03/15 · openalex publication_date 2018/03/20 · arxiv updated 2018/03/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The temperature of the semiconductor diode increases under strong light illumination whether thermoelectric cooler is installed or not, which changes the output wavelength of the laser (Lee M. S. et al., 2017). However, other characteristics also vary as temperature increases. These variations may help the eavesdropper in practical quantum key distribution systems. We study the effects of temperature increase on gain-switched semiconductor lasers by simulating temperature dependent rate equations. The results show that temperature increase may cause large intensity fluctuation, decrease the output intensity and lead the signal state and decoy state distinguishable. We also propose a modified photon number splitting attack by exploiting the effects of temperature increase. Countermeasures are also proposed.

Citations