High-speed secure key distribution based on chaos synchronization in optically pumped QD spin-polarized VCSELs

We propose and numerically demonstrate a high-speed secure key distribution (SKD) based on polarization-keying chaos synchronization in two quantum dot (QD) spin-polarized vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) without any external feedback. In this scheme, high-quality chaos synchronization can be obtained when the response lasers have the same polarization ellipticity. The proposed SKD scheme is benefited from the feasible tunability of the pump polarization ellipticity, and no other complex components are necessary. Moreover, the open-loop configuration is constructed in the commonly driven lasers and results in a short synchronization recovery time of hundreds of picoseconds, which is much shorter than that in most previous reports. Combined with these merits, a 1.34 Gb/s SKD with a bit error ratio lower than 3.8 × 10^-3 can be achieved. The current study provides a new way to realize high-speed physical key distribution.