We investigate the polarization state dynamics of single photon pulse for optical fiber quantum communication channels. On the basis of a birefringence vector model in which amplitude and direction are both stochastic variables, Jones vector is obtained by solving the frequency domain wave equation. The fidelity of output quantum state and degree of polarization of the pulse are also obtained from the density operators. It is shown that the fidelity of quantum state decreases quickly and tends to a stable value along optical fiber, and increases for larger mean fluctuation magnitude of the stochastic fiber birefringence. Degree of polarization is nearly constant for small mean fluctuation magnitude of the birefringence. The fidelity and degree of polarization vary in the same way for Gaussian and rectangular frequency spectrum envelope, while the value of Lorentzian spectrum is smaller.
We investigate the polarization state dynamics of single photon pulse for optical fiber quantum communication channels. On the basis of a birefringence vector model in which amplitude and direction are both stochastic variables, Jones vector is obtained by solving the frequency domain wave equation. The fidelity of output quantum state and degree of polarization of the pulse are also obtained from the density operators. It is shown that the fidelity of quantum state decreases quickly and tends to a stable value along optical fiber, and increases for larger mean fluctuation magnitude of the stochastic fiber birefringence. Degree of polarization is nearly constant for small mean fluctuation magnitude of the birefringence. The fidelity and degree of polarization vary in the same way for Gaussian and rectangular frequency spectrum envelope, while the value of Lorentzian spectrum is smaller.
The implementation of quantum communication protocols in long optical fibers is limited by several decoherence mechanisms. In this contribution we review this mechanisms and analysis their effect on the quantum states. Because of asymmetry in the real fibers, the two orthogonal polarization modes are propagated at different phase and group velocities. The difference in group velocities results in Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD). It is created by random fluctuations of the residual birefringence in optical fibers, such that the State of Polarization (SOP) of an optical signal will turn randomly over time, in an unpredictable way. In optical quantum communication, quantum state measurement is necessary. The bottleneck for communication between far apart nodes is the increasing of the error probability with the length of the channel connecting the nodes. For an optical fiber, the value of absorption and depolarization of a photon (i.e., the qubit) increases exponentially with the length of the fiber.
We investigate the quantum decoherence of frequency and polarization variables of photons via polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers. By observing the analogy between the propagation equation of the field and the Schr\"odinger equation, we develop a master equation under Markovian approximation and analytically solve for the field density matrix. We identify distinct decay behaviors for the polarization and frequency variables for single-photon and two-photon states. For the single-photon case, purity functions indicate that complete decoherence for each variable is possible only for infinite fiber length. For entangled two-photon states passing through separate fibers, entanglement associated with each variable can be completely destroyed after characteristic finite propagation distances. In particular, we show that frequency disentanglement is independent of the initial polarization status. For propagation of two photons in a common fiber, the evolution of a polarization singlet state is addressed. We show that while complete polarization disentanglement occurs at a finite propagation distance, frequency entanglement could survive at any finite distance for Gaussian states.
In this work we consider the Liouville equation; it describes the dynamics of the photon density matrix in the Schr\"odinger representation based on the Markov approximation in the channel without dispersion. The equation contains a relaxation superoperator dependent on the phenomenological parameters of the optical fiber. These parameters allow one to take into account the phenomena of birefringence and optical activity, isotropic absorption, and dichroism. We also present in our work that these parameters affect not only the polarization of the states but the length of the Stokes vector. Hence the developed technique describes the decoherence process in the polarization domain in the quantum case and allows one to analyze the dynamics of single-photon states in the quantum (depolarizing) channel more properly. We also present a visual illustration of polarization states' evolution in the polarization-coded quantum key distribution BB84 protocol as an example. We estimate quantum bit error rates' dependence on channel length. Also we examine maximal allowed channel length, dependent on various configurations of channel parameters.
We investigate the effects of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) on the propagation of single- and two-photon states in single-mode fibers. We look at PMD as decoherence due to the system's coupling with the bosonic environment involved in optical birefringence and a thermal bath, respectively. The evolution of the polarization density matrix is described by a master equation, and its solution is used to calculate the differential group delay (DGD) due to the fiber. The PMD effects on the dynamics of EPR states in optical fibers are investigated by using the same method. In both the short-time and long-time regimes, we find that PMD-induced and thermal-induced decoherence behave similarly.
As is well known, quantum optics has developed significantly in recent years and advanced several hot research topics, such as quantum communications, quantum sensing, quantum calculations, etc. Among these researches, it is important to understand the quantum information transmitting in optical fiber. For realizing longer transmission distance and better transmission quality, great effort has devoted to the researches of encoding and decoding at the transmitter and the receiver end. However, less attention was paid to the fading of signal in the transmission channel. In this work, we mainly focus on the transmission model of optical quantum transmission and the influences of loss, dispersion and nonlinear effect on fiber transmission of optical quantum information are also discussed.Quantum information transmission can be influenced by loss, dispersion and nonlinear effect in optical fiber, leading to transmission state evolution and energy transfer. Based on the transmission equation of single mode fiber and quantum theory of electromagnetic field, the fundamental mode field of single mode fiber is quantized. A quantum transmission equation is deduced from the classical optical transmission equation through quantizing the amplitude of electromagnetic field. Compared with classic wave theory, the photon transmission equation quantizing the slowly-varying amplitude in the coupled nonlinear Schrdinger equation is obtained. In the classic wave equation, light is interpreted as energy which propagates as waves. The photon transmission equation is obtained by quantizing the slowly-varying amplitude of light, that is, the particle nature of light. The energy propagates through alternative interaction between creation and annihilation operator on photons. The transmission equations show that photons will interact with the transmission medium during propagation and be influenced by dispersion, nonlinear effect, loss, etc. By giving a trail solution and introducing a perturbation term, the transmission equation is solved for the complicated case where the dispersion, loss and nonlinear effect are all involved. A dispersion equation that should be satisfied for nontrivial solution is then obtained. From this dispersion equation, the relation between photon power and perturbation frequency is calculated and analyzed. The change of photon power in generalized field with perturbation frequency is discussed, and the influences of fiber dispersion and nonlinearity on the solution are analyzed.Some conclusions are obtained by perturbed solution and analyses of single photon transmission equation in optical fiber. It is found that photon power decreases with the increase of perturbation frequency and reaches its maximum value for zero perturbation frequency. At the same time, the optical power is affected by the dispersion of the optical fiber. Photon power decreases with the GVD coefficient far from the zero dispersion point. It is also found that photon power decreases with the increase of nonlinear coefficient. This work may contribute to the research of the properties of quantum fiber transmission system.
A phenomenological Hamiltonian of photons in single-mode stochastic fiber depending on the vector of random parameters is proposed. The time dynamics of single-photon density matrix in the basis of states with orthogonal polarizations is considered. The fiber-parameter-averaged quantum bit error rate (QBER) in a sifted quantum key distributed over the BB84 protocol using entangled polarization states of biphotons is found. It is shown that QBER can be significantly reduced even at large dispersions of random fiber parameters. To this end, identically fabricated fibers must be used for quantum channels A and B. The choice of pairs of fiber segments must be correlated, with a correlation coefficient close to unity. This approach is based on a remarkable property of the singlet biphoton state, which is “free of collective decoherence.” A correlated choice of fiber segments for channels A and B reduces significantly QBER, making its value below critical (i.e., equal to 0.11, a level below which a distributed key is accepted for cryptographic purposes).