Active phase compensation of quantum key distribution system

Quantum key distribution (QKD) system must be robust enough in practical communication. Besides birefringence of fiber, system performance is notably affected by phase drift. The Faraday-Michelson QKD system can auto-compensate the birefringence of fiber, but phase shift is still a serious problem in its practical operation. In this paper, the major reason of phase drift and its effect on Faraday-Michelson QKD system is analyzed and an effective active phase compensation scheme is proposed. By this means, we demonstrate a quantum key distribution system which can stably run over 37-km fiber in practical working condition with the long-time averaged quantum bit error rate of 1.59% and the standard derivation of 0.46%. This result shows that the active phase compensation scheme is suitable to be used in practical QKD systems based on double asymmetric interferometers without additional devices and thermal controller.