  We introduce a novel time-frequency quantum key distribution (TFQKD) scheme
based on photon pairs entangled in these two conjugate degrees of freedom. The
scheme uses spectral detection and phase modulation to enable measurements in
the temporal basis by means of time-to-frequency conversion. This allows
large-alphabet encoding to be implemented with realistic components. A general
security analysis for TFQKD with binned measurements reveals a close connection
with finite-dimensional QKD protocols and enables analysis of the effects of
dark counts on the secure key size.
