najoNanosystems: Physics, Chemistry, MathematicsНаносистемы: физика, химия, математика2220-80542305-7971Университет ИТМОnajo-1589Research ArticlePHYSICSФИЗИКАPulsed phase modulation with harmonic electric control signal for quantum key distribution implementationshttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9870-9285GaidashAndrei Alekseevichandrewdgk@gmail.comhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4265-8818MiroshnichenkoGeorge Petrovichgpmirosh@gmail.comhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4468-5406KozubovAnton Vladimirovichavkozubov@itmo.ruУниверситет ИТМОSMARTS-Quanttelecom LLC, 199178, 59-1-B 6th line of Vasilievsky island, Saint Petersburg, Russia; ITMO University, 3b Kadetskaya Line, 199034 Saint Petersburg, RussiaITMO University, 3b Kadetskaya Line, 199034 Saint Petersburg, RussiaRussian FederationSMARTS-Quanttelecom LLC, 199178, 59-1-B 6th line of Vasilievsky island, Saint Petersburg, Russia; ITMO University, 3b Kadetskaya Line, 199034 Saint Petersburg, RussiaRussian Federation2026050320261711589Copyright © Gaidash A.A., Miroshnichenko G.P., Kozubov A.V., 20262026Gaidash A.A., Miroshnichenko G.P., Kozubov A.V.Gaidash A.A., Miroshnichenko G.P., Kozubov A.V.Данная работа распространяется под лицензией Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.https://nanojournal.ifmo.ru/jour/article/view/1589

In this work, we investigate an alternative approach to phase modulation for information encoding and decoding in quantum key distribution systems. Specifically, we propose pulsed phase modulation, i.e. it has an envelope in addition to previously considered only harmonic temporal behavior of modulation index (depth), as a replacement for the conventional use of both intensity and phase modulators, which enables a more compact and cost-effective optical design. We further analyze how the principal parameters of this scheme affect the interference observed at the receiver and, consequently, their contribution to the quantum bit error rate in a subcarrier-wave quantum key distribution implementation.

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest present.