Decoherence is one of the main obstacles in quantum information processing. In cryptographic scenarios, in particular, decoherence is not only responsible for the loss of the quantum properties but also for information leakage out to a wiretapper. Given that decoherence must be fought in real-world quantum communication systems, we present a scheme, using decoherence-free subspaces and subsystems, to perform secure classical communications through noisy quantum channels. Using quantum information and wiretap theories, we establish a proof of unconditional security of our scheme. We illustrate our proposal with a non-trivial example and discuss some of its impacts on already existing quantum secure message exchange protocols. Furthermore, we present some up-to-date technologies that can be used for practical implementation of the scheme proposed.
Programmable instrumentation and gigahertz signaling for single-photon quantum communication systems
