Beam-splitter-free, high-rate quantum key distribution inspired by intrinsic quantum mechanical spatial randomness of entangled photons
Quantum key distribution (QKD) using entangled photon sources (EPS) is a cornerstone of secure communication. Despite rapid advances in QKD, conventional protocols still employ beam splitters (BSs) for passive random basis selection. However, BSs intrinsically suffer from photon loss, imperfect splitting ratios, and polarization dependence, limiting the key rate, increasing the quantum bit error rate (QBER), and constraining scalability, particularly over long distances. By contrast, EPSs based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) intrinsically exhibit quantum randomness in spatial and spectral degrees of freedom, offering a natural replacement for BS-based basis selection. Here, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept QKD scheme that exploits the intrinsic spatial randomness of SPDC without employing beam splitters. The annular SPDC emission ring is divided into four spatial sections, effectively generating two independent EPSs whose photon pairs are distributed to Alice and Bob. Crucially, the measurement basis is not predetermined but is assigned after photon detection by exploiting intrinsic detector timing jitter, thereby concealing the basis information from a potential eavesdropper. This post-detection basis assignment emulates stochastic basis choice while avoiding BS-induced losses and bias. Experimentally, our scheme achieves a 6.4-fold enhancement in sifted key rate, a consistently reduced QBER, and a near-ideal encoding balance between linear and rectilinear bases. Furthermore, the need for four spatial channels can be avoided by employing wavelength demultiplexing to generate two EPSs at distinct wavelength pairs. Harnessing intrinsic spatial/spectral randomness thus enables robust, bias-free, high-rate, and low-QBER QKD, offering a scalable pathway for next-generation quantum networks.