Hybrid plasmonic-photonic cloaking for secure quantum communication

Abstract

The rapid development of quantum communication networks has highlighted the urgent need for physical-layer protection mechanisms that complement cryptographic protocols. While photonic systems provide low-loss transmission and high-fidelity quantum state manipulation, they remain vulnerable to side-channel leakage and electromagnetic probing. Plasmonic nanostructures, on the other hand, offer extreme field confinement and tunable resonance properties, enabling adaptive shielding against external interrogation. In this work, we propose a hybrid plasmonic–photonic cloaking framework designed to enhance the security of quantum communication channels. The architecture integrates metamaterial-based plasmonic layers with photonic waveguides to dynamically suppress scattering signatures, minimize information leakage, and preserve quantum coherence. Analytical modeling and numerical simulations demonstrate that the hybrid cloak achieves attenuation exceeding 40 dB in targeted probing bands while maintaining entanglement visibility above 90%. The results indicate that combining plasmonic resonance with photonic interference provides a scalable and reconfigurable defense strategy for next-generation quantum networks, including fiber-based, free-space, and satellite communication systems. This study establishes a foundation for multi-layered quantum security architectures where physical cloaking complements protocol-level cryptography.