Experimental Efficient Source-Independent Quantum Conference Key Agreement

Multipartite entanglement enables secure group key distribution among multiple users while providing immunity against hacking attacks targeting source devices, thereby realizing source-independent quantum conference key agreement (SI-QCKA). However, previous experimental demonstrations of SI-QCKA have encountered substantial technical challenges, primarily due to the low efficiency and scalability limitations inherent in the generation and distribution of multipartite entanglement. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a scalable and efficient SI-QCKA protocol using polarization-entangled photon pairs in a 3-user star network, where Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger correlations are realized via a post-matching method. We achieve a secure group key rate of 2.11 × 104 bits/s under the single-user channel transmission of 1.64 × 10−1 in a symmetric channel loss network. Additionally, we conduct 6 sets of experiments to investigate the impact of varying channel transmission and random basis selection probabilities on secure key rates. Our work establishes an efficient pathway for SI-QCKA and demonstrates potential scalability for future large-scale multiuser quantum networks.