High-Capacity Quantum Secure Direct Communication with Single Photons in Both Polarization and Spatial-Mode Degrees of Freedom

摘要

We present a high-capacity quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) protocol with single photons in both the polarization and the spatial-mode degrees of freedom. With a single photon traveling forth and back from the receiver to the sender, it can carry 2 bits of information as the sender can encode his message on both the polarization states and the spatial-mode states of single photons independently. Moreover, our QSDC protocol is feasible as the preparation and the measurement of a single-photon quantum state in both the polarization and the spatial-mode degrees of freedom is not difficult with current technology.