Evaluation of nitrogen- and silicon-vacancy defect centres as single photon sources in quantum key distribution

Abstract

We demonstrate a quantum key distribution (QKD) testbed for room temperature single photon sources based on defect centres in diamond. A BB84 protocol over a short free-space transmission line is implemented. The performance of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) as well as silicon-vacancy defect (SiV) centres is evaluated. An extrapolation for the future applicability of such sources in quantum information processing is discussed.