Micius: entanglement-based QKD over 1,120 km
An entanglement-based quantum-key-distribution experiment generated secure keys between ground stations separated by 1,120 km without treating the satellite as a trusted relay.
- Team / system
- University of Science and Technology of China · Micius team
- Link geometry
- Ground-station separation
- Platform
- Satellite-based entanglement QKD
- Year / programme
- 2020
01 · SYSTEM
How it was achieved
Micius distributed entangled photons to separated ground stations. Security was derived from the measured quantum correlations, so the satellite did not need to know the final key—a different trust model from prepare-and-measure satellite QKD.
02 · EVIDENCE
Evidence snapshot
- 01
1,120 km separation between ground stations.
- 02
Entanglement-based protocol removed the requirement to trust the satellite relay.
- 03
Published in Nature in 2020.
03 · SIGNIFICANCE
Why it matters
The work advanced satellite quantum links from physics demonstration toward architectures with stronger security assumptions for wide-area quantum networks.
05 · REFERENCES
Sources & references
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