Demonstration of a partial knowledge quantum key distribution protocol

arXiv:2611.10670v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We demonstrate a novel QKD protocol, named \texttt{Bridge[$d,q$]}, which generalizes the \texttt{SARG04} protocol to $d$ dimensions and $q$ bases. In this protocol, Alice and Bob gain only partial knowledge about each other's raw key. Nevertheless, this partial information is sufficient to distill a definite mutual encryption key. We present an experimental demonstration of the \texttt{Bridge[$2,3$]} protocol. The three unbiased polarization bases were switched using a single Pockels cell. The applied polarization basis switching method is relevant to any 3-basis QKD protocol and to other applications that require fast manipulation of photon polarization qubits.