<p>This doctoral thesis summarizes research in quantum cryptography done at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) from 1998 through 2007.</p><p>The opening parts contain a brief introduction into quantum cryptography as well as an overview of all existing single photon detection techniques for visible and near infrared light. Then, our implementation of a fiber optic quantum key distribution (QKD) system is described. We employ a one-way phase coding scheme with a 1310 nm attenuated laser source and a polarization-maintaining Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A feature of our scheme is that it tracks phase drift in the interferometer at the single photon level instead of employing hardware phase control measures. An optimal phase tracking algorithm has been developed, implemented and tested. Phase tracking accuracy of +-10 degrees is achieved when approximately 200 photon counts are collected in each cycle of adjustment. Another feature of our QKD system is that it uses a single photon detector based on a germanium avalanche photodiode gated at 20 MHz. To make possible this relatively high gating rate, we have developed, implemented and tested an afterpulse blocking technique, when a number of gating pulses is blocked after each registered avalanche. This technique allows to increase the key generation rate nearly proportionally to the increase of the gating rate. QKD has been demonstrated in the laboratory setting with only a very limited success: by the time of the thesis completion we had malfunctioning components in the setup, and the quantum bit error rate remained unstable with its lowest registered value of about 4%.</p><p>More than half of the thesis is devoted to various security aspects of QKD. We have studied several attacks that exploit component imperfections and loopholes in optical schemes. In a large pulse attack, settings of modulators inside Alice's and Bob's setups are read out by external interrogating light pulses, without interacting with quantum states and without raising security alarms. An external measurement of phase shift at Alice's phase modulator in our setup has been demonstrated experimentally. In a faked states attack, Eve intercepts Alice's qubits and then utilizes various optical imperfections in Bob's scheme to construct and resend light pulses in such a way that Bob does not distinguish his detection results from normal, whereas they give Bob the basis and bit value chosen at Eve's discretion. Construction of such faked states using several different imperfections is discussed. Also, we sketch a practical workflow of breaking into a running quantum cryptolink for the two abovementioned classes of attacks. A special attention is paid to a common imperfection when sensitivity of Bob's two detectors relative to one another can be controlled by Eve via an external parameter, for example via the timing of the incoming pulse. This imperfection is illustrated by measurements on two different single photon detectors. Quantitative results for a faked states attack on the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) and the Scarani-Acin-Ribordy-Gisin 2004 (SARG04) protocols using this imperfection are obtained. It is shown how faked states can in principle be constructed for quantum cryptosystems that use a phase-time encoding, the differential phase shift keying (DPSK) and the Ekert protocols. Furthermore we have attempted to integrate this imperfection of detectors into the general security proof for the BB84 protocol. For all attacks, their applicability to and implications for various known QKD schemes are considered, and countermeasures against the attacks are proposed.</p><p>The thesis incorporates published papers [J. Mod. Opt. 48, 2023 (2001)], [Appl. Opt. 43, 4385 (2004)], [J. Mod. Opt. 52, 691 (2005)], [Phys. Rev. A 74, 022313 (2006)], and [quant-ph/0702262].</p>

This doctoral thesis summarizes research in quantum cryptography done at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) from 1998 through 2007. The opening parts contain a brief introduction into quantum cryptography as well as an overview of all existing single photon detection techniques for visible and near infrared light. Then, our implementation of a fiber optic quantum key distribution (QKD) system is described. We employ a one-way phase coding scheme with a 1310 nm attenuated laser source and a polarization-maintaining Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A feature of our scheme is that it tracks phase drift in the interferometer at the single photon level instead of employing hardware phase control measures. An optimal phase tracking algorithm has been developed, implemented and tested. Phase tracking accuracy of +-10 degrees is achieved when approximately 200 photon counts are collected in each cycle of adjustment. Another feature of our QKD system is that it uses a single photon detector based on a germanium avalanche photodiode gated at 20 MHz. To make possible this relatively high gating rate, we have developed, implemented and tested an afterpulse blocking technique, when a number of gating pulses is blocked after each registered avalanche. This technique allows to increase the key generation rate nearly proportionally to the increase of the gating rate. QKD has been demonstrated in the laboratory setting with only a very limited success: by the time of the thesis completion we had malfunctioning components in the setup, and the quantum bit error rate remained unstable with its lowest registered value of about 4%. More than half of the thesis is devoted to various security aspects of QKD. We have studied several attacks that exploit component imperfections and loopholes in optical schemes. In a large pulse attack, settings of modulators inside Alice's and Bob's setups are read out by external interrogating light pulses, without interacting with quantum states and without raising security alarms. An external measurement of phase shift at Alice's phase modulator in our setup has been demonstrated experimentally. In a faked states attack, Eve intercepts Alice's qubits and then utilizes various optical imperfections in Bob's scheme to construct and resend light pulses in such a way that Bob does not distinguish his detection results from normal, whereas they give Bob the basis and bit value chosen at Eve's discretion. Construction of such faked states using several different imperfections is discussed. Also, we sketch a practical workflow of breaking into a running quantum cryptolink for the two abovementioned classes of attacks. A special attention is paid to a common imperfection when sensitivity of Bob's two detectors relative to one another can be controlled by Eve via an external parameter, for example via the timing of the incoming pulse. This imperfection is illustrated by measurements on two different single photon detectors. Quantitative results for a faked states attack on the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) and the Scarani-Acin-Ribordy-Gisin 2004 (SARG04) protocols using this imperfection are obtained. It is shown how faked states can in principle be constructed for quantum cryptosystems that use a phase-time encoding, the differential phase shift keying (DPSK) and the Ekert protocols. Furthermore we have attempted to integrate this imperfection of detectors into the general security proof for the BB84 protocol. For all attacks, their applicability to and implications for various known QKD schemes are considered, and countermeasures against the attacks are proposed. The thesis incorporates published papers [J. Mod. Opt. 48, 2023 (2001)], [Appl. Opt. 43, 4385 (2004)], [J. Mod. Opt. 52, 691 (2005)], [Phys. Rev. A 74, 022313 (2006)], and [quant-ph/0702262].

An extended Förster theory (EFT), previously derived (L. B.-Å. Johansson et al. J. Chem. Phys., 1996,105) has theoretically been adapted and used in simulations of donor-acceptor energy transfer (DAET), which is a process often referred to as FRET. It was shown that the classical Förster theory is only valid in the initial part of the fluorescence decay. In this thesis an EFT is derived and outlined for electronic energy transport between two fluorescent molecules which are chemically identical, but photophysically non-identical. The energy migration within such asymmetric pairs is partially reversible and therefore referred to as partial donor-donor energy migration (PDDEM). The previously derived model of PDDEM (S. V. Kalinin et al. Spectrochim Acta Part A, 2002,58) is an approximation of the EFT. In particular, the EFT accounts for the time-dependent reorientations as well as the distance that influence the rate of electronic energy migration. The reorientation of the fluorophores transition dipole moments has been simulated using Brownian dynamics. As a result, the related “k2-problem” has been solved. The EFT of PDDEM has also been studied regarding the effect of PDDEM on experimental observables e.g. quantum yield of fluorescence and steady-state anisotropies

Gegenstand dieser Diplomarbeit ist die Untersuchung der Dynamik in dünnen Polymerfilmen anhand von einzelnen Molekülen. Zu diesem Zweck wurden dünne Filme (kleiner 100nm) hergestellt und mittels Einzelmoleküldetektion und zeitaufgelöster Einzelphotonenzählung analysiert, was eine orts- und zeitaufgelöste Untersuchung einzelner Farbstoffmoleküle ermöglicht. Ziel war es, festzustellen ob, und auf welchem Weg, die Dynamik der Umgebung in Fluktuationen der Fluoreszenzlebensdauer einzelner Moleküle sichtbar wird. Neben der Evaluierung der Untersuchungsmethoden wurden in dieser Arbeit zwei Arten von Sensormolekülen - DiD und Malachit Grün - näher untersucht. / The subject of this diploma thesis is the analysis of dynamics in thin polymer films using single molecules. Thin polymer films (less than 100nm) were produced and analysed by Single Molecule Detection (SMD) and Time Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC). This allows a spatial and time resolved investigation of the single dye molecule. The aim was to ascertain if, and in which way, the dynamics of the environment are reflected by fluctuations of the fluorescence lifetime of the single molecule. In addition to evaluating the investigation methods two kinds of molecules - DiD and Malachite Green - were also analysed.

In recent years, the usage of 3D deep learning techniques has seen a surge,mainly driven by advancements in autonomous driving and medical applications.This thesis investigates the applicability of existing state-of-the-art 3Ddeep learning network architectures to dense voxel grids from single photoncounting 3D LiDAR. This work also examine the choice of loss function asa means of dealing with extreme data imbalance, in order to segment peopleand vehicles in outdoor forest scenes. Due to data similarities with volumetricmedical data, such as computer tomography scans, this thesis investigates ifa model for 3D deep learning used for medical applications, the commonlyused 3D U-Net, can be used for photon counting data. The results showthat segmentation of people and vehicles is possible in this type of data butthat performance depends on the segmentation task, light conditions, and theloss function. For people segmentation the final models are able to predictall targets, but with a significant amount of false positives, something that islikely caused by similar LiDAR responses between people and tree trunks.For vehicle detection, the results are more inconsistent and varies greatlybetween different loss functions as well as the position and orientation of thevehicles. Overall, we consider the 3D U-Net model a successful proof-ofconceptregarding the applicability of 3D deep learning techniques to this kindof data. / Under de senaste åren har användningen för djupinlärningstekniker för 3Dsett en kraftig ökning, främst driven av framsteg inom autonoma fordon ochmedicinska tillämpningar. Denna avhandling undersöker befintliga modernadjupinlärningsnätverk för 3D i täta voxelgriddar från fotonräknande 3D LiDARför att segmentera människor och fordon i skogsscener. Vidare undersöksvalet av målfunktion som ett sätt att hantera extrem dataobalans. På grundav datalikheter med volymetriska medicinska data, såsom datortomografi,kommer denna avhandling att undersöka om en modell för 3D-djupinlärningsom används för medicinska applikationer, nämligen 3D U-Net, kan användasför fotonräknande data. Resultaten visar att segmentering av människor ochfordon är möjligt men att prestanda varier avsevärt med segmenteringsuppgiften,ljusförhållanden, och målfunktioner. För segmentering av människorkan de slutgiltiga modellerna segmentera alla mål men med en betydandemängd falska utslag, något som sannolikt orsakas av liknande LiDAR-svarmellan människor och trädstammar. För segmentering av fordon är resultatenmer oberäkneliga och varierar kraftigt mellan olika målfunktioner såväl somfordonens position och orientering. Sammantaget anser vi att 3D U-Netmodellenvisar på en framgångsrik konceptvalidering när det gäller tillämpningav djupinlärningstekniker för 3D på denna typ av data.

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[pt] Neste trabalho são apresentados dois reflectômetros ópticos por contagem de fótons no domínio do tempo para o monitoramento de fibras ópticas. O primeiro foi projetado para obter faixas dinâmicas altas. Demonstrou-se a sua capacidade de sintonização no monitoramento de redes passivas WDM-PON durante o tráfego de dados. 32 dB de faixa dinâmica com 6 m de resolução foram atingidos. O segundo reflectômetro foi projetado para atingir resoluções ultra altas. As aplicações neste caso, além do monitoramento de uma rede TDM-PON de curto alcance, foram na caracterização de redes de Bragg dispersivas e na descrição e modelagem de um fenômeno não reportado antes na literatura, chamado nesta tese de reflexão por curvatura. Foi demonstrada uma resolução menor que 3 cm com faixa dinâmica maior que 14.0 dB. / [en] This thesis presents the development of two photon counting optical time domain reflectometers for fiber optic links monitoring. The first one was focused on high dynamic range. It is demonstrated its tunable capability for a WDM-PON in-service monitoring. 32 dB on dynamic range and a two-point resolution of 6 m is achieved. The second reflectometer was design to accomplish an ultra high resolution. The monitoring of a short TDM-PON is performed. Moreover, due to its high resolution, a chirped fiber Bragg grating is characterized and a non previous reported phenomena, the bend reflection, is shaped and described. It is demonstrated 3 cm two-point resolution and more than 14 dB on dynamic range.

La scintillation organique correspond au phénomène d’émission de lumière par un matériau moléculaire à la suite de l’excitation de celui-ci par un rayonnement externe d’énergie donnée. Lors de l’interaction, le dépôt d’énergie induit des transitions électroniques peuplant des états dont la plupart se désexcite de manière non radiative, à l’exception d’une, entre le premier état électronique singulet et l’état fondamental de la molécule. Lors de cette relaxation, un photon de fluorescence est émis. Cette émission a deux origines : i) l’excitation directe par le rayonnement primaire et les électrons secondaires ; elle donne lieu à une émission dite rapide ou prompte ; ii) l’ionisation par le rayonnement primaire et les électrons secondaires ; elle donne lieu à une émission dite lente ou différée. Ce travail de recherche fondamentale, à la fois théorique et expérimental, fait l’analyse de toutes les étapes du processus, de l’interaction primaire à l’émission de fluorescence, de manière à relier la dose déposée à la quantité de lumière émise, à des fins d’applications en dosimétrie médicale. Il repose sur la mesure des déclins de fluorescence de deux molécules modèles, l’anthracène et le paraterphényle, excitées par un flux continu de rayons X, et la séparation des contributions rapide et lente de la lumière émise, aux énergies médicales. Une modélisation analytique des processus physiques conduisant à l’émission de lumière, au regard de la dose déposée, a ensuite été effectuée, faisant apparaître de nombreux résultats originaux. Dans un premier temps, un dispositif expérimental original a été développé, basé sur la technique TCSPC (Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting), afin de pouvoir mesurer des déclins temporels de fluorescence en résolution nanoseconde et sous flux d’irradiation continu. Dans un second temps, nous avons développé une nouvelle approche mathématique permettant d’extraire finement les composantes rapides et lentes du signal. L’analyse des résultats a montré, pour la première fois, l’existence d’un rapport R constant et uniquement fonction du matériau, entre les rendements d’excitation et d’ionisation. Le caractère constant de ce rapport ne peut être attribué qu’à un mécanisme d’autoionisation moléculaire au sein d’un matériau se comportant intrinsèquement comme une chambre d’ionisation proportionnelle pour l’ionisation secondaire de basse énergie. Ceci est en accord total avec la linéarité observée entre l’intensité totale de lumière différée (ionisation) et la dose mesurée par une chambre d’ionisation proportionnelle. Une étude plus approfondie des mécanismes d’excitation, au regard du rapport R, a également permis de montrer, pour la première fois, une proportionnalité directe entre l’intensité totale de la lumière prompte et le dépôt d’une dose que nous avons baptisé dose d’excitation. Cette dose a été observée comme étant de 4 à 14 fois supérieure à celle mesurée par une chambre d’ionisation. Ce résultat original majeur devra impérativement conduire à des études futures afin de mieux comprendre les dégâts infligés à la matière organique et biologique par les excitations. / Organic scintillation is the emission of light by an organic scintillator when irradiated by an external source of radiation depositing enough energy to excite the molecule. Electronic states are populated by the electronic transitions generated by the deposited energy. The states de-excite through radiationless transitions, except for one, the transition between the first electronic state and the ground state where a photon of fluorescence is emitted. This light has two different origins: i) direct excitation caused by primary radiation or secondary electrons which leads to an emission knows as prompt; ii) ionization caused by primary radiation or secondary electrons generate what is known as the delayed component. This fundamental research was based on both theoretical and experimental work. We studied all the different processes in organic scintillation, from the interaction between the incident radiation and matter to the emission of light in order to find the relationship between fluorescence and the deposited dose, to the application to medical dosimetry. Two well known organic scintillators, anthracene and p-terphenyl, were excited using an X-ray source set at typical medical imaging parameters. The light emitted was acquired and an analytical model was used to describe the different processes that led to light emission revealing interesting new results.An experimental setup, based on the Time Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) technique, was developed to acquire fluorescence decay curves with nanosecond resolution using a continuous X-ray source. Afterwards, these curves were analyzed using an innovative mathematical approach in order to determine the prompt and delayed components.Results showed the ratio, defined as R, between the prompt and delayed components of fluorescence was constant and independent of the energy of the incident X-rays and that the response of the delayed component of fluorescence was linear to an ionization chamber. These observations were explained by considering that the only process taking place within the molecule after excitation was autoionization. Hence, the response of organic scintillator was the same as the one of an ionization chamber. Furthermore, due to the constant ration R, the response of prompt component of fluorescence was linear to the ionization chamber as well. This was the first time this behavior was observed and we referred to it as excitation dose. This dose was between 4 and 14 times bigger than the one measured with the ionization chamber. These original results suggested that energy is deposited mainly through excitation processes, suggesting the need for further studies to better understand the damage caused by excitation to the living.

Ein Ziel der Arbeit war die Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur 3D-Positionierung auf Basis elektrooptischer Pseudostreckenmessung. Ein zweites Ziel war die Entwicklung eines Reflexgoniometers zur zweiachsigen Winkelmessung. Im Rahmen der Arbeit wurden die Grundlagen zur instrumentellen Umsetzung beider Verfahren erarbeitet, die Genauigkeitspotentiale ermittelt und mögliche Anwendungen für die einzelnen Schlüsseltechnologien und deren Kombination abgeleitet. In einer Prototyp-Entwicklung wurden Vorschläge für die wesentlichen Funktionselemente des räumlichen Weg- bzw. Winkelmesssystems gemacht. Hierzu gehören das kardanisch aufgehängte Etalon, die temperaturstabilisierte Laseroptik und die temperaturkalibrierte CCD der Winkelmesseinheit (Reflexgoniometer), die Systeme zur Erzeugung und Detektion ultrakurzer Laserpulse, eine elastische Optik, Möglichkeiten zur Formung des transversalen Strahlprofils, das TCSPC-System und die zur Auswertung und Kalibrierung notwendigen Algorithmen, wie z.B. die Autokollimation eines Lasers. (&amp;quot;Veröffentlicht von der Deutschen Geodätischen Kommission Reihe C (Dissertationen) unter der Nummer C 614 (München 2008; ISBN 3 7696 5053 0; 2; 144 S.&amp;quot;) / One goal of the thesis was the development of a method for three-dimensional positioning based on electro-optical measurement of pseudo ranges. Another goal was the development of a reflex goniometer for biaxial angle measurement. Within the scope of this thesis the basics for the instrumental realisation of both methods were developed, the accuracy potentials were determined and possible applications for the separate key technologies and their combination were deduced. In a prototype development proposals were made for the main functional elements of the spatial distance and angle measurement systems. These include the gimbal mounted etalon, the temperature stabilised laser optics and the temperature calibrated CCD of the angle measurement device (reflex goniometer), the systems for creation and detection of ultrashort laser pulses, an elastic optical device, possibilities of transversal beam shaping, the TCSPC system and the algorithms which are necessary for analysis and calibration, e.g. the autocollimation of a laser.

Ein Ziel der Arbeit war die Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur 3D-Positionierung auf Basis elektrooptischer Pseudostreckenmessung. Ein zweites Ziel war die Entwicklung eines Reflexgoniometers zur zweiachsigen Winkelmessung. Im Rahmen der Arbeit wurden die Grundlagen zur instrumentellen Umsetzung beider Verfahren erarbeitet, die Genauigkeitspotentiale ermittelt und mögliche Anwendungen für die einzelnen Schlüsseltechnologien und deren Kombination abgeleitet. In einer Prototyp-Entwicklung wurden Vorschläge für die wesentlichen Funktionselemente des räumlichen Weg- bzw. Winkelmesssystems gemacht. Hierzu gehören das kardanisch aufgehängte Etalon, die temperaturstabilisierte Laseroptik und die temperaturkalibrierte CCD der Winkelmesseinheit (Reflexgoniometer), die Systeme zur Erzeugung und Detektion ultrakurzer Laserpulse, eine elastische Optik, Möglichkeiten zur Formung des transversalen Strahlprofils, das TCSPC-System und die zur Auswertung und Kalibrierung notwendigen Algorithmen, wie z.B. die Autokollimation eines Lasers. (&amp;quot;Veröffentlicht von der Deutschen Geodätischen Kommission Reihe C (Dissertationen) unter der Nummer C 614 (München 2008; ISBN 3 7696 5053 0; 2; 144 S.&amp;quot;) / One goal of the thesis was the development of a method for three-dimensional positioning based on electro-optical measurement of pseudo ranges. Another goal was the development of a reflex goniometer for biaxial angle measurement. Within the scope of this thesis the basics for the instrumental realisation of both methods were developed, the accuracy potentials were determined and possible applications for the separate key technologies and their combination were deduced. In a prototype development proposals were made for the main functional elements of the spatial distance and angle measurement systems. These include the gimbal mounted etalon, the temperature stabilised laser optics and the temperature calibrated CCD of the angle measurement device (reflex goniometer), the systems for creation and detection of ultrashort laser pulses, an elastic optical device, possibilities of transversal beam shaping, the TCSPC system and the algorithms which are necessary for analysis and calibration, e.g. the autocollimation of a laser.