We investigate the use of quantum scissors, as candidates for non-deterministic amplifiers, in continuous-variable quantum key distribution. Such devices rely on single-photon sources for their operation and as such, they do not necessarily preserve the Guassianity of the channel. Using exact analytical modeling for the system components, we bound the secret key generation rate for a protocol that uses quantum scissors. We find that, for certain non-zero values of excess noise, such a protocol can reach longer distances than the counterpart with no amplification. This sheds light into the prospect of using quantum scissors as an ingredient in continuous-variable quantum repeaters.

中文翻译：

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量子剪刀长距离连续变量量子密钥分配

我们研究了在连续可变量子密钥分配中使用量子剪刀作为非确定性放大器的候选者。此类设备依赖单光子源进行操作，因此，它们不一定保持通道的高斯分布。使用系统组件的精确分析建模，我们限制了使用量子剪刀的协议的密钥生成率。我们发现，对于某些非零值的过量噪声，这样的协议可以达到比没有放大的对应协议更长的距离。这揭示了使用量子剪刀作为连续可变量子中继器的成分的前景。