Reducing the afterpulse effect in QKD systems using detector doubling in the BB84 protocol

The afterpulse effect is an undesirable phenomenon that occurs in single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). SPADs are widely employed in quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. As QKD systems advance to support higher data rates, the minimization of afterpulses becomes increasingly critical. In this paper, we introduce what we believe to be a new structure for the BB84 QKD protocol to reduce afterpulses in QKD systems. The proposed method does not change the secure key rate compared to the conventional BB84 protocol. We conduct a theoretical analysis and simulation of the performance of a single-photon-based QKD system utilizing SPADs with suboptimal afterpulse characteristics. Our results indicate that the afterpulse probability (Pa) in SPADs does not impose a strict lower bound on the error rate of sifted keys in single-photon-based QKD systems. The system utilizes a simplified version of the two-bases BB84 protocol, which operates over fiber-optic or free-space channels. In the proposed structure, eight detectors are used to measure four polarization angles, yielding four possible outcomes. The findings emphasize the practicality of this setup for both fiber-based and free-space quantum communication, making it highly suitable for real-world applications. The afterpulse decay is dependent on an exponential function and changes proportionally to the elapsed time, the number of trapped carriers, the carrier lifetime, the field strength, and the temperature. The project team has extensive experience in afterpulse reduction and has published several papers on the subject. Using the idea presented in this paper, by doubling the receiver detectors under the same conditions, the probability of afterpulse occurrence is approximately halved. We are looking to propose new structures and protocols to reduce undesired pulses in single-photon avalanche detectors.