High-dimensional cryptography with spatial modes of light: tutorial

Fast and secure sharing of information is among the prime concerns of almost any communication system. While commonly used cryptographic algorithms cannot provide unconditional security, high-dimensional (HD) quantum key distribution (QKD) offers an exceptional means to this end. Here, we provide a tutorial to demonstrate that HD QKD protocols can be implemented in an effective way using optical elements that are known to most optics labs. We use spatial modes of light as our HD basis and show how to simulate QKD experiments with bright classical light, fostering its easy implementation for a more general audience including industry laboratories or laboratory classes in university teaching and in advanced laboratories for validation purposes. In particular, we use orbital angular momentum Bessel–Gaussian modes for our HD QKD demonstration to illustrate and highlight the benefits of using spatial modes as their natural Schmidt basis and self-healing feature.