Experimental demonstration of long distance quantum communication with independent heralded single photon sources

Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is essential for various quantum communication protocols, including quantum teleportation, entanglement swapping, and measurement-device-independent (MDI) quantum key distribution (QKD). A significant challenge is producing single photons that remain indistinguishable over long distances. Time jitter introduced in synchronization between remote nodes reduces temporal overlap, making photons no longer indistinguishable. To mitigate this effect, previous solutions are forced to increase the temporal overlap, typically by using narrowband filtering strategies to extend photon coherence time. However, this dramatically decreases photon rates, making them impractical for real-life applications. Here we address this dilemma by employing common laser pulses to generate intrinsically synchronized single photons, eliminating the need for extended coherence time. Without compromising photon indistinguishability, we achieved a four-fold coincidence count rate more than two orders of magnitude higher than previous methods over 50 kilometers of fiber transmission. This breakthrough enabled the implementation of MDI-QKD with passive decoy states, demonstrating the viability of our approach.