New passive decoy-state quantum key distribution with thermal distributed parametric down-conversion source

We present a new scheme on implementing the passive quantum key distribution with thermal distributed parametric down-conversion source. In this scheme, only one-intensity decoy state is employed, but we can achieve very precise estimation on the single-photon-pulse contribution by utilizing those built-in decoy states. Moreover, we compare the new scheme with other practical methods, i.e., the standard three-intensity decoy-state BB84 protocol using either weak coherent states or parametric down-conversion source. Through numerical simulations, we demonstrate that our new scheme can drastically improve both the secure transmission distance and the key generation rate.