Unconditionally secure one-way quantum key distribution using decoy pulses

The authors report here a complete experimental realization of one-way decoy pulse quantum key distribution, demonstrating an unconditionally secure key rate of 5.51 kbits/s for a 25.3 km fiber length. This is two orders of magnitudes higher than the value that can be obtained with a nondecoy system. They also introduce a simple test for detecting the photon number splitting attack and highlight that it is essential for the security of the technique to fully characterize the source and detectors used.