Free-space Quantum Communication Research Articles

Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution with Local Frequency Reference.

Twin-field quantum key distribution (TFQKD) overcomes the linear rate-loss limit, which promises a boost of secure key rate over long distance. However, the complexity of eliminating the frequency differences between the independent laser sources hinders its practical application. We analyzed and determined the frequency stability requirements for implementing TFQKD using frequency-stabilized lasers. Based on this analysis, we proposed and demonstrated a simple and practical approach that utilizes the saturated absorption spectroscopy of acetylene as an absolute reference, eliminating the need for fast frequency locking to achieve TFQKD. Adopting the 4-intensity sending-or-not-sending TFQKD protocol, we experimentally demonstrated the TFQKD over 502, 301, and 201km ultralow-loss optical fiber, respectively. We expect this high-performance scheme will find widespread usage in future intercity and free-space quantum communication networks.

Recovery of polarization entanglement in partially coherent photonic qubits.

Partially coherent photonic qubits, owing to their robustness in propagation through random media compared to fully coherent qubits, find applications in free-space communication, quantum imaging, and quantum sensing. However, the reduction of spatial coherence degrades entanglement in qubits, adversely affecting entanglement-based applications. We report the recovery of entanglement in the partially coherent photonic qubits generated using a spontaneous parametric downconversion process despite retaining their multimode nature. This study utilizes an electron multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) to perform coincidence measurements, eliminating the need for raster scanning of single-pixel detectors, which simplifies optical alignment, enhances precision, and reduces time consumption. We demonstrate that the size of apertures used to select biphotons substantially impacts the visibility and S-parameter of polarization-entangled partially coherent qubits. The entanglement is recovered with partial spatial coherence properties by choosing small sizes of the apertures in the captured image plane. This study could help in the advancement of free-space quantum communication, quantum imaging, and quantum metrology.

Highly-enhanced active beam-wander-correction for free-space quantum communications.

In practical applications to free-space quantum communications, the utilization of active beam coupling and stabilization techniques offers notable advantages, particularly when dealing with limited detecting areas or coupling into single-mode fibers(SMFs) to mitigate background noise. In this work, we introduce highly-enhanced active beam-wander-correction technique, specifically tailored to efficiently couple and stabilize beams into SMFs, particularly in scenarios where initial optical alignment with the SMF is misaligned. To achieve this objective, we implement a SMF auto-coupling algorithm and a decoupled stabilization method, effectively and reliably correcting beam wander caused by atmospheric turbulence effects. The performance of the proposed technique is thoroughly validated through quantitative measurements of the temporal variation in coupling efficiency(coincidence counts) of a laser beam(entangled photons). The results show significant improvements in both mean values and standard deviations of the coupling efficiency, even in the presence of 2.6 km atmospheric turbulence effects. When utilizing a laser source, the coupling efficiency demonstrates a remarkable mean value increase of over 50 %, accompanied by a substantial 4.4-fold improvement in the standard deviation. For the entangled photon source, a fine mean value increase of 14 % and an approximate 2-fold improvement in the standard deviation are observed. Furthermore,the proposed technique successfully restores the fidelity of the polarization-entangled state, which has been compromised by atmospheric effects in the free-space channel, to a level close to the fidelity measured directly from the source. Our work will be helpful in designing spatial light-fiber coupling system not only for free-space quantum communications but also for high-speed laser communications.

Adjustable spatial filter for optimal free-space quantum communication round the clock.

Free-space quantum communication in daylight relies crucially on spatial filtering. The optimal filter configuration, however, depends on ever-changing link conditions. To this end, we developed an adjustable spatial filter that can be used to change the system field of view on the fly. We demonstrate its use in quantum key distribution over a 1.7-km free-space link. Furthermore, we compare it to filtering with multi-mode fiber coupling. Finally, we extrapolate our results to a broader range of realistic link conditions and show that active field-of-view optimization has the potential to substantially improve the overall secure key output of the system.

Experimental generation and characterization of partially spatially coherent qubits

Partially spatially coherent qubits are more immune to turbulent atmospheric conditions than coherent qubits, which makes them excellent candidates for free-space quantum communication. In this article, we report the generation of partially spatially coherent qubits in a spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) process using a Gaussian Schell model (GSM) pump beam. For this non-linear process, we demonstrate experimentally for the first time, the transfer of spatial coherence features of the pump (classical) to the biphotons (quantum) field. Also, the spatial profiles of partially coherent qubits generated in type-I and type-II non-collinear SPDC process are experimentally observed and multi-mode nature of partially coherent photons (qubit) is ascertained. These investigations pave the way toward the efficient generation of partially spatially coherent qubits with a tunable degree of spatial coherence, which lead to wide range of applications in frontier areas such as quantum cryptography, teleportation, imaging, and lithography.

Characterization of Orbital Angular Momentum Quantum States Empowered by Metasurfaces

Twisted photons can in principle carry a discrete unbounded amount of orbital angular momentum (OAM), which are of great significance for quantum communication and fundamental tests of quantum theory. However, the methods for characterization of the OAM quantum states present a fundamental limit for miniaturization. Metasurfaces can exploit new degrees of freedom to manipulate optical fields beyond the capabilities of bulk optics, opening a broad range of novel and superior applications in quantum photonics. Here we present a scheme to reconstruct the density matrix of the OAM quantum states of single photons with all-dielectric metasurfaces composed of birefringent meta-atoms. We have also measured the Schmidt number of the OAM entanglement by the multiplexing of multiple degrees of freedom. Our work represents a step toward the practical application of quantum metadevices for the measurement of OAM quantum states in free-space quantum imaging and communications.

Programmable Spatiotemporal Quantum Parametric Mode Sorter

Photons are ideal information carriers for sensing, communication, and computing. In principle, a single photon can carry much information in its spatiotemporal modes; the challenge is to read it out, as linear optical elements are not sensitive to the subtle differences among those modes. This study demonstrates a nonlinear-optical approach in which a single pass through a LiNiO${}_{3}$ waveguide can separate photons according to their detailed spatiotemporal profiles or their superpositions, even if they completely overlap with each other. This provides access to photons' large Hilbert spaces, pointing to applications in free-space quantum communication, computing, and sensing.

Nonlocal Temporal Interferometry for Highly Resilient Free-Space Quantum Communication

Entanglement distribution via photons over long distances enables many applications, including quantum key distribution, which provides unprecedented privacy. The inevitable degradation of entanglement through noise accumulated over long distances remains one of the key challenges in this area. Exploiting the potential of higher-dimensional entangled photons promises to address this challenge, but poses extreme demands on the experimental implementation. Here, we present a long-range free-space quantum link, distributing entanglement over 10.2 km with flexible dimensionality of encoding by deploying a phase-stable nonlocal Franson interferometer. With this distribution of multidimensional energy-time entangled photons, we analyze the achievable key rate in a dimensionally adaptive quantum key distribution protocol that can be optimized with respect to any environmental noise conditions. Our approach enables and emphasizes the power of high-dimensional entanglement for quantum communication, yielding a positive asymptotic key rate well into the dawn of the day.Received 15 March 2022Revised 16 January 2023Accepted 13 February 2023DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.13.021001Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasQuantum channelsQuantum communicationQuantum cryptographyQuantum entanglementQuantum information theoryQuantum networksQuantum Information

Optical noise in a free-space quantum communications link from natural and nuclear disturbed environments* *This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to

Satellite communications at radio frequencies can experience a ‘blackout’ period following the atmospheric detonation of a nuclear weapon. The wavelengths used for free-space quantum communications will not incur the same ‘blackout’ effects from a nuclear detonation, but the optical systems will suffer from a phenomenon called redout. Redout occurs in an optical detector when ambient light scatters into the optical receiver, causing elevated background photon counts in the detector such that background noise overwhelms the signal. In this work, the duration of the redout effect is quantified from a nuclear disturbed environment on a ground-to-space quantum optical link. In addition, we comment on various techniques for reducing ambient and nuclear disturbed background counts in a quantum free-space optical link. For low-altitude nuclear detonations (i.e., under 50 km), the maximum interference time will be less than 1 min. Implementing a telescope, timing gate, and wavelength filter to the detector can reduce the background counts in the detector significantly. Aerosol levels and ground albedo are major contributors to background noise in a ground-to-satellite quantum channel, and ground station location should factor in both variables.

BBM92 quantum key distribution over a free space dusty channel of 200 meters

Free-space quantum communication assumes importance as it is a precursor for satellite-based quantum communication needed for secure key distribution over longer distances. Prepare and measure quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols like BB84 consider the satellite as a trusted device, which is fraught with security threat looking at the current trend for satellite-based optical communication. Therefore, entanglement-based protocols must be preferred, so that one can consider the satellite as an untrusted device. The current work reports the effect of atmospheric aerosols on the key rate obtained with BBM92 QKD protocol, an entanglement-based QKD protocol over 200 m distance, using an indigenous facility developed at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, India. Our results show that concentration and extinction coefficient of atmospheric aerosols play a major role in influencing the observed sift key rate, and eventually, the secure key rate. Such experiments are important to validate the models to account for the atmospheric effects on the key rates achieved through satellite-based QKD.

Learnable antinoise-receiver algorithm based on a quantum feedforward neural network in optical quantum communication

The quantum communication process usually consists of three stages: the sender who prepares encoded carriers, the transmission in noisy channels, and the quantum receivers. The transmitted quantum information can be inevitably affected by kinds of quantum noise in the environment. Thus, quantum protocols are extensively studied to improve communication efficiency and accuracy under the influence of quantum noise. The optimization strategies usually occur in these three stages. In this paper, we focus on the optimization strategy of quantum receivers in the third stage. In quantum receiver algorithms, the key to distinguish received non-orthogonal coherent states in free-space optical quantum communication is to construct an optimum displacement operator for transforming the current coherent state into a state that is easier to distinguish than before. To improve the antinoise ability and accuracy of quantum communication, this paper proposes a universal optimization strategy of quantum receivers called learnable antinoise receiver (LAN receiver). In this strategy, a parametrized quantum circuit is constructed as a quantum feedforward neural network as the displacement operator to improve the antinoise ability. The parameters used in the quantum circuit are updated by gradient descent continuously to find the best parameter combination of the quantum circuit that minimizes the error rate and the qubits affected by quantum noise are used as training and testing data. The simulation of the proposed algorithm shows that the LAN receiver can resist different kinds of strong quantum noise. The average error rate of the proposed algorithm LAN receiver under the strong noise channel is 0.18, which has better performance than other type of receivers under the influence of strong quantum noise.

Quantum steering with vector vortex photon states with the detection loophole closed

Violating a nonlocality inequality enables the most powerful remote quantum information tasks and fundamental tests of quantum physics. Loophole-free photonic verification of nonlocality has been achieved with polarization-entangled photon pairs, but not with states entangled in other degrees of freedom. Here we demonstrate completion of the quantum steering nonlocality task, with the detection loophole closed, when entanglement is distributed by transmitting a photon in an optical vector vortex state, formed by optical orbital angular momentum (OAM) and polarization. As well as opening up a high-efficiency encoding beyond polarization, the critically important demonstration of vector vortex steering opens the door to new free-space and satellite-based secure quantum communication devices and device-independent protocols.

Robotized polarization characterization platform for free-space quantum communication optics.

We develop a polarization characterization platform for optical devices in free-space quantum communications. We demonstrate an imaging polarimeter, which analyzes both incident polarization states and the angle of incidence, attached to a six-axis collaborative robot arm, enabling polarization characterization at any position and direction with consistent precision. We present a detailed description of each subsystem, including the calibration and polarization-test procedure, and analyze polarization measurement errors caused by imperfect orientations of the robot arm using a Mueller-matrix model of polarimeters at tilt incidence. We perform a proof-of-principle experiment for an angle-dependent polarization test for a commercial silver-coated mirror for which the polarization states of the reflected light can be accurately calculated. Quantitative agreement between the theory and experiment validates our methodology. We demonstrate the polarization test for a 20.3cm lens designed for a quantum optical transmitter in Canada's Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite mission.

Imaging inspired characterization of single photons carrying orbital angular momentum

We report on an imaging-inspired measurement of orbital angular momentum (OAM) using only a simple tilted lens and an intensified charged coupled device camera, allowing us to monitor the propagation of OAM structured photons over distance, which is crucial for free-space quantum communication networks. We demonstrate the measurement of OAM orders as high as ls = 14 in a heralded single-photon source and show, for the first time, the imaged self-interference of photons carrying OAM in a modified Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The described methods reveal both the charge and order of a photon's OAM and provide a proof of concept for the interference of a single OAM photon with itself. Using these tools, we are able to study the propagation characteristics of OAM photons over a distance, which is important for estimating transport in free-space quantum links. By translating these classical tools into the quantum domain, we offer a robust and direct approach for the complete characterization of a twisted single-photon source, an important building block of a quantum network.

Twin-field quantum key distribution over free-space optical channels in the presence of atmospheric turbulence

Future quantum communication networks envisaged on a global scale will include various networks interlinked via optical fiber and free space channels. In recent years, quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol based on optical fiber has been extensively studied. Twin-field QKD (TF-QKD) may enable 550 km QKD using standard optical fiber without quantum repeaters. However, the performance of TF-QKD in free-space channel is still unclear. In this paper, a free-space channel model is proposed with specific turbulence characterization discussed. Here, the key rate of TF-QKD under multiple scenarios considering the variation of turbulence and different link configuration is investigated. Simulation results demonstrate that the performance of free-space TF-QKD is related to link configuration and turbulence motion which is determined by surface feature, time and height. Furthermore, TF-QKD protocol is a potential scheme for the free-space quantum communication.

Influence of sand and dust turbulent atmosphere on performance of free space quantum communication

Quantum communication is a frontier hotspot of current research, and it has ideal information security. In order to enable quantum systems in arid and desertified areas to work almost under all-weather condition, it is necessary to study the attenuation of free-space quantum signal transmission and the influence of the turbulence atmosphere carrying sand and dust on communication performance. Using Mie scattering theory, multiple scattering simulation method, and atmospheric turbulence theory, the attenuation of optical wave transmission in sand and dust turbulent atmospheric channels with different visibility, and the influence of multiple scattering and turbulence on attenuation are studied. The results show that the effect of multiple scattering increases with the decrease of visibility, the turbulence effect gradually strengthens with the increase of distance. According to the quantum amplitude damped channel model, the effects of multiple scattering and turbulence in the sand and dust turbulent atmosphere with different visibility on the quantum channel capacity, fidelity and bit error rate are analyzed. The results show that as the visibility decreases, the multiple scattering effect increases, resulting in the decrease of attenuation and bit error rate, but an increase in channel capacity, fidelity and the boundaries of security key rate. The existence of turbulence in the dust atmosphere will increase the attenuation and bit error rate, but reduce the channel capacity, fidelity and security key rate. It can be seen that the influence of multiple scattering and turbulence on the communication performance, when the visibility of the sand and dust atmosphere are both low, cannot be ignored. In practical applications, the relevant parameters of quantum communication should be adaptively adjusted according to the visibility and turbulence intensity to improve the probability, efficiency and reliability of quantum communication.

Feasibility of continuous-variable quantum key distribution through fog.

Free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) can be very attractive due to the possibility of its flexible and rapid deployment. In spite of the advantages of free-space transmission, there is still a risk of encountering bad weather such as fog. Here we experimentally demonstrate free-space QKD using continuous variables under foggy conditions and estimate achievable transmission distances based on the experimental results. Pessimistically, a weather condition that has visibility of 1 km allows about 0.6-km transmission. An optimistic result, on the other hand, shows that a transmission distance of 1.8 km at visibility of 1.5 km can be achieved. The results suggest that free-space continuous-variable quantum communication systems are potentially applicable in the presence of fog.

A low-noise single-photon detector for long-distance free-space quantum communication

We build and test a single-photon detector based on a Si avalanche photodiode Excelitas 30902SH thermoelectrically cooled to −100∘C. Our detector has dark count rate below 1 Hz, 500 mumathrm{m} diameter photosensitive area, photon detection efficiency around 50%, afterpulsing less than 0.35%, and timing jitter under 1 ns. These characteristics make it suitable for long-distance free-space quantum communication links, which we briefly discuss. We also report an improved method that we call long-time afterpulsing analysis, used to determine and visualise long trap lifetimes at different temperatures.

Composable security for continuous variable quantum key distribution: Trust levels and practical key rates in wired and wireless networks

Continuous variable (CV) quantum key distribution (QKD) provides a powerful setting for secure quantum communications, thanks to the use of room-temperature off-the-shelf optical devices and the potential to reach much higher rates than the standard discrete-variable counterpart. In this work, we provide a general framework for studying the composable finite-size security of CV-QKD with Gaussian-modulated coherent-state protocols under various levels of trust for the loss and noise experienced by the parties. Our study considers both wired (i.e., fiber-based) and wireless (i.e., free-space) quantum communications. In the latter case, we show that high key rates are achievable for short-range optical wireless (LiFi) in secure quantum networks with both fixed and mobile devices. Finally, we extend our investigation to microwave wireless (WiFi) discussing security and feasibility of CV-QKD for very short-range applications.

Self-referenced hologram of a single photon beam

Quantitative characterization of the spatial structure of single photons is essential for free-space quantum communication and quantum imaging. We introduce an interferometric technique that enables the complete characterization of a two-dimensional probability amplitude of a single photon. Importantly, in contrast to methods that use a reference photon for the phase measurement, our technique relies on a single photon interfering with itself. Our setup comprises of a heralded single-photon source with an unknown spatial phase and a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a spatial filter in one of its arms. The spatial filter removes the unknown spatial phase and the filtered beam interferes with the unaltered beam passing through the other arm of the interferometer. We experimentally confirm the feasibility of our technique by reconstructing the spatial phase of heralded single photons using the lowest order interference fringes. This technique can be applied to the characterization of arbitrary pure spatial states of single photons.