Contribution à l'étude et la réalisation de systèmes de transmissions optiques sécurisées

The works presented here belongs to the field of cryptography and more precisely to the quantum cryptography. The goal is to design a system for transmitting simultaneously a key for encoding and a signal clock in the same optical fibre (at the classical wavelength of telecommunications 1550 nm) in order to avoid the effects of chromatic dispersion. Indeed the signal representing the key of encoding must be carried out in the form of strongly attenuated pulses simulating single photons; under these conditions it is necessary for improving the detection to know thanks to a clock signal the arrival time of the pulses. We achieve two signals with very close wavelengths (variation of 0.88 pm) thanks to an acousto-optic modulator, each one serving as carrier for one the two signals. At the reception stage it is necessary to separate these two wavelengths and for this reason a filter based on a Fabry-Pérot interferometer has been designed, produced, tested and implemented at the laboratory. Then we also produced a photodetector based on an avalanche photodiode, with the possibility to lower the operating temperature until approximately 0°C. The system was entirely carried out and we have shown the feasibility of this technique. Improvements remain to be brought in particular on the stability of the optical filter and the operation of the detector in counting mode of photons.