Influences of PM2.5 atmospheric pollution on the performance of free space quantum communication

Abstract

In recent years, the PM2.5 air pollution has been increasingly serious, which not only affects the air quality and visibility, but also has effects on free space optical signal transmission. However, the research about the relationship between the PM2.5 air pollution and the free space quantum communication has not yet been started. To investigate this relationship, the PM2.5 distribution function and its chemical extinction should be analyzed first. According to the degree of PM2.5 atmospheric pollution and the humidity of the atmosphere, the relationships among the PM2.5 index, the humidity of the atmosphere and the channel attenuation of the free space quantum communication can then be established. According to the amplitude damping channel and the depolarizing channel, the effects of the degree of PM2.5 air pollution on channel capacity, channel average fidelity, channel bit error rate are put out and simulated finally. Simulation results show that, if the air humidity is 30% and the PM2.5 index is 50, the channel capacity, channel average fidelity and the channel bit error rate of free space quantum communication will be 0.83, 0.91 and 0.0048 respectively. While the air humidity is 30% and the PM2.5 index is 300, the above channel parameters will be respectively 0.21, 0.56 and 0.0192. Further more, the channel average fidelity has an obvious difference between the two kinds of channel, and it is also related to the probability of the value of the source characters. Thus, the degree of PM2.5 air pollution has a significant effect on the performance of free space quantum communication. And, in order to improve the reliability of quantum communication in free space, the parameters should be adjusted adaptively based on the status of PM2.5 air pollution.