It is well known that accurate clock synchronization is the backbone of quantum information processing tasks. Continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV QKD), when proposed, benefited from its natural synchronization signals, i.e., local oscillator (LO), which provides a precise and automatic clock synchronization without a special clock board. The application of LO, however, incurs security loopholes, exposing the system to the risk of being attacked. We resolve this unsafe synchronization by proposing a virtual clock synchronization method for the CV QKD protocol without sending a real LO. The proposed method, which is based on the interpolation algorithm, extracts the clock information from the measured quadrature of the quantum signal rather than the classical LO. By formulating the measured quadrature as the synchronization signal, Bob recovers the clock information without both security loopholes and a specific clock board. Numerical results test the robustness of our method and show its potential in a real CV QKD implementation.

• Received 11 December 2021
• Revised 3 March 2022
• Accepted 16 June 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.18.014064