LUQCIA project Milestone 1 Report

SNT Team finalized the provider selection for QKD equipment to be installed. The selection process included the request for equipment quotation from Toshiba Europe and Aurea technologies.
• Due to maturity, availability, and proofness, the team selected the Cerberis XCR platform provided by the company ID Quantique. Additionally, IDQ devices allow the user to perform research and his own developments in an open architecture.
• The procurement process started at the beginning of 2022, and due to the total amount, it took until the last week of June to retrieve the equipment at UniLu premises. The procurement process required a formal derogation process to avoid public tendering. The justification for the derogation was the lack of other providers of QKD equipment that allows performing development and research while at the same time providing a finalized prototype that can be used as a starting point for the custom developments.
• The current delays in the supplier’s chain have created a delay in finishing some procurements of auxiliary equipment related to the Lab.
• The team started the physical space request from the University Logistics to have the place to deploy the QKD experiments. The space in the JFK building is an underground room of around 70 square meters. The space on the MSO building in Esch-Sur-Alzette will be a standard office space with fibre optic connectivity.
• The team has been evaluating if installing a temperature control system in the JFK lab is required. For this purpose, we have been taking temperature measurements since the beginning of the year. In any case, the vendor specifications state that there are no stringent requirements in terms of temperature control other than an average room temperature. (10 to 30 Degrees in specs).University Logistics accomplished maintenance activities in the Lab facilities on JFK, basically to the floor and the electrical and communication network. The JFK Quantum Lab settlement is accomplished: the deployment of optical network fibre from the Lab to the JFK Data centre, server installation and mount rack setup.
• The team has been evaluating if installing a temperature control system in the JFK lab is required. For this purpose, we have been taking temperature measurements since the beginning of the year. In any case, the vendor specifications state that there are no stringent requirements in terms of temperature control other than an average room temperature. (10 to 30 Degrees in specs).
• The team is accomplishing the first experiments on the in-situ quantum link. The experiments include the basic setup of one pair of QKD devices, the “network setup,” and the “Quantum Channel Setup.”
• The team has accomplished the preliminary configuration and testing on 3 pairs of QKD devices and presented the testing report in Technical Report 1: Integration and testing results which include the initial device setting in the log file and statistic testing result.
• The second training provided by IDQ was presented physically in early November. The next milestone is implementing the Evedropping and provide the testing result.