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arXiv:0710.4093 · Optics Express

Full polarization control for fiber optical quantum communication systems using polarization encoding

GUILHERME BARRETO XAVIER, G. Vilela de Faria, Guilherme P. Temporão, Jean Pierre von der Weid

Published Jan 1, 2008• 138 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A real-time polarization control system employing two non-orthogonal reference signals multiplexed in either time or wavelength with the data signal is presented. It is shown, theoretically and experimentally, that complete control of multiple polarization states can be attained employing polarization controllers in closed-loop configuration. Experimental results on the wavelength multiplexing setup show that negligible added penalties, corresponding to an average added optical Quantum Bit Error Rate of 0.044%, can be achieved with response times smaller than 10 ms, without significant introduction of noise counts in the quantum channel.

DOI
10.1364/oe.16.001867

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A real-time polarization control system employing two non-orthogonal reference signals multiplexed in either time or wavelength with the data signal is presented. It is shown, theoretically and experimentally, that complete control of multiple polarization states can be attained employing polarization controllers in closed-loop configuration. Experimental results on the wavelength multiplexing setup show that negligible added penalties, corresponding to an average added optical Quantum Bit Error Rate of 0.044%, can be achieved with response times smaller than 10 ms, without significant introduction of noise counts in the quantum channel.
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The physical effects such as random birefringence of fiber optic channels due to environmental influences make the optical signals transmitted in them have sensitive polarization variations, which seriously affects the performance of polarization biased code quantum key distribution systems. In this paper, a low-noise fiber channel wavelength division multiplexing real-time polarization compensation system is presented, where single photon counting is used as a feedback signal. The system can acquire the fiber channel polarization change information by detecting the photon counting of the conjugate reference light. In the system, the compensation algorithm is designed to control the electric polarization controller to calibrate the polarization state of the quantum signal light under the corresponding polarization base in real time, and the stable fiber channel polarization compensation is successfully achieved. In order to verify the effectiveness of the compensation system, a quantum key distribution test based on BB84 protocol with a transmission distance of 25.2 km is conducted, and stable test results of up to 8 hours are obtained in the laboratory environment and the simulated metropolitan area network buried fiber environment, with the average quantum bit error rate being 0.52% and 1.25%, respectively. The experimental results show that this system can guarantee the stable operation of polarization-encoded quantum key distribution in the buried fiber environment in urban areas.
In this work, a fully functional polarization-encoding quantum key distribution system (QKD) is demonstrated. At the transmitter side, the polarization states are prepared using an algorithm to determine the voltages to be applied on the electronic polarization controller (EPC), to generate up to four polarization states. At the receiver, a second EPC is used to perform the basis alignment. The symbol synchronization is achieved using a reference optical signal that is wavelength division multiplexed with the quantum signal which carries the polarization-encoded qubit. Frame synchronization is achieved at a protocol level. The presented QKD system works at a repetition rate of 500 Hz, with an average quantum bit error rate of 1.35%.
Quantum communications can provide almost perfect security through the use of quantum laws to detect any possible leak of information. We discuss critical issues in the implementation of quantum communication systems over installed optical fibers. We use stimulated four-wave mixing to generate single photons inside optical fibers, and by tuning the separation between the pump and the signal we adjust the average number of photons per pulse. We report measurements of the source statistics and show that it goes from a thermal to Poisson distribution with the increase of the pump power. We generate entangled photons pairs through spontaneous four-wave mixing. We report results for different type of fibers to approach the maximum value of the Bell inequality. We model the impact of polarization rotation, attenuation and Raman scattering and present optimum configurations to increase the degree of entanglement. We encode information in the photons polarization and assess the use of wavelength and time division multiplexing based control systems to compensate for the random rotation of the polarization during transmission. We show that time division multiplexing systems provide a more robust solution considering the values of PMD of nowadays installed fibers. We evaluate the impact on the quantum channel of co-propagating classical channels, and present guidelines for adding quantum channels to installed WDM optical communication systems without strongly penalizing the performance of the quantum channel. We discuss the process of retrieving information from the photons polarization. We identify the major impairments that limit the speed and distance of the quantum channel. Finally, we model theoretically the QBER and present results of an experimental performance assessment of the system quality through QBER measurements.