Practical asynchronous measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution with advantage distillation

Abstract

The advantage distillation (AD) method has proven effective in improving the performance of quantum key distribution (QKD). In this paper we introduce the AD method into a recently proposed asynchronous measurement-device-independent (AMDI) QKD protocol, taking finite-key effects into account. Simulation results show that the AD method significantly enhances AMDI QKD, e.g., extending the transmission distance by 16 km with a total pulse count of $N=7.24\times {10}^{13}$, and enables AMDI QKD, previously unable to generate keys, to generate keys with a misalignment error rate of $10\%$. As the AD method can be directly integrated into the current system through refined postprocessing, our results facilitate the practical implementation of AMDI QKD in various applications, particularly in scenarios with high channel losses and misalignment errors.