title: Two-party secret key distribution via a modified quantum secret sharing protocol.
abstract: We present and demonstrate a novel protocol for distributing secret keys between two and only two parties based on N-party single-qubit Quantum Secret Sharing (QSS). We demonstrate our new protocol with N = 3 parties using phase-encoded photons. We show that any two out of N parties can build a secret key based on partial information from each other and with collaboration from the remaining N - 2 parties. Our implementation allows for an accessible transition between N-party QSS and arbitrary two party QKD without modification of hardware. In addition, our approach significantly reduces the number of resources such as single photon detectors, lasers and dark fiber connections needed to implement QKD.
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Grice
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lawrie
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Legré
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lougovski
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Smith