Demonstration of quantum-cryptography-based one-time pad communication via
the BB84 algorithm using a non-single photon source.
project progress | contributors | repository structure | frequently asked questions
Kanban Boards: Everyone, Ben, Ferdi, Manu, Niko
| Author | GitHub profile | homepage |
|---|---|---|
| Benjamin Medicke | bmedicke | benmedicke.com |
| Ferdi Cevik | Osomo3000 | cf-projects |
| Manuel Nagel | namanuel | namanuel.github.io |
| Nikolai Benedikt | nikobenedikt |
Here's a quick breakdown of what to find where in the repository:
- Theory 💭 describes the the BB84 algorithm and required theory
- Hardware 🔭 collects information about which hardware was used and how to set it up
- 3D models 🏗️ holds printable components
- Setup 🧑🏻💻 installation instructions for the software and required services
- Notebooks 🪐 contains the actual JupyterLab Notebooks for Alice, Bob and Eve
- Guidelines ✒️ coding and contribution guidelines
- qcrypt docs 📜 documentation for the quantum crypto library
Why build some components instead of using the respective ThorLabs versions?
Mainly to keep it open-source and reduce the size of the hardware setup. As an added bonus it lowers the cost and barrier of entry for anyone who is interested in replicating the project.
ThorLabs motorized filter wheel
What hardware do I need to run this project?
See Hardware for a list of required components and 3D models for printable parts.
Why use JupyterLab Notebooks as a frontend?
On one hand, JupyterLab provides an interactive, browser-based computing environment, which makes it easy to do exploratory coding. On the other hand, different types of cells in a notebook allow code and markdown-based documentation to live in the same document. We hope this makes it easier to follow both the code and BB84 protocol.
Is Python 3.9 absolutely required?
Yes. We make use of some of the new features.
When running pip install -r requirements.txt it fails with Building wheel for smbus (setup.py) ... error.
You are probably not on a Raspberry Pi with Raspbian (or a similar operating system). This is due to missing I2C. If you're just interested in seeing the notebooks and running some parts of them you can remove the smbus line from requirements.txt. You won't be able to use the quantum channel, of course.