We experimentally demonstrate long-distance continuous-variable quantum key distribution over a 50-km standard optical fiber based on continuous-variable Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entangled states. The entanglement survives despite being distributed over a high-loss optical fiber channel. At a channel excess noise level of 0.01 shot-noise units, we achieve an asymptotic secret key rate of 0.03 bit per sample, which is superior to the optimized coherent-state protocol. The superiority is even more evident at a high-channel excess noise level of 0.1 shot-noise units. Our work paves the way toward practical applications of continuous-variable quantum key distribution under high amounts of excess channel noise.

• Received 19 June 2018
• Revised 5 September 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.10.064028