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arXiv:1512.04659 · Journal of Optics

Non-Markovian evolution of photonic quantum states in atmospheric turbulence

Filippus Stefanus Roux

Published Mar 15, 2016• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The evolution of the spatial degrees of freedom of a photon propagating through atmospheric turbulence is treated as a non-Markovian process. Here, we derive and solve the evolution equation for this process. The turbulent medium is modeled by a sequence of multiple phase screens for general turbulence conditions. The non-Markovian perspective leads to a second-order differential equation with respect to the propagation distance. The solution for this differential equation is obtained with the aid of a perturbative analysis, assuming the turbulence is relatively weak. We also provide another solution for more general turbulence strengths, but where we introduce a simplification to the differential equation.

DOI
10.1088/2040-8978/18/5/055203

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Abstract The evolution of the spatial degrees of freedom of a photon propagating through atmospheric turbulence is treated as a non-Markovian process. Here, we derive and solve the evolution equation for this process. The turbulent medium is modeled by a sequence of multiple phase screens for general turbulence conditions. The non-Markovian perspective leads to a second-order differential equation with respect to the propagation distance. The solution for this differential equation is obtained with the aid of a perturbative analysis, assuming the turbulence is relatively weak. We also provide another solution for more general turbulence strengths, but where we introduce a simplification to the differential equation.
The quantum state for the spatial degrees of freedom of photons propagating through turbulence is analyzed. The turbulent medium is modeled by a single phase screen for weak scintillation conditions and by multiple phase screens for general scintillation conditions. In the former case the process is represented by an operator product expansion, leading to an integral expression that is consistent with current models. In the latter case the evolution of the density operator is described by a first-order differential equation with respect to the propagation distance. It is shown that this differential equation has the form of a Lindblad master equation. Additionally, it is shown that this differential equation can take on the form of the infinitesimal propagation equation.
Considering the evolution of the quantum state of a pair of entangled photons in a turbulent atmosphere and using the quadratic approximation to the Kolmogorov model of turbulence, we provide an analytical solution for the dynamical equation (an infinitesimal propagation equation) that describes this evolution in the plane-wave basis. As such, this solution fully incorporates the effect of multiple scattering, caused by the medium. After being converted into a discrete orbital angular momentum (OAM) basis, this solution retains the effect of coupling between different OAM modes on the twin-photon state for arbitrary propagation distances and arbitrary turbulence strengths. We define a minimal set of parameters that determines the entanglement evolution in the regime of strong scintillation. Furthermore, we show that in the limit of weak scintillation, our solutions reduce to those obtained from the single-phase-screen model.
Evolution equations for the moments of a photonic quantum state propagating through atmospheric turbulence are derived. These evolution equations are obtain from an evolution equation for the characteristic functional of the state, incorporating all spatiotemporal degrees of freedom. The measured quantities, such as the intensity or photon distribution, of the evolving state can be expressed in terms of such moments without having to know the exact final state. The case of an initial coherent state is considered as an example.
Abstract The recently developed Wigner functional theory is used to formulate an evolution equation for arbitrary multi-photon states, propagating through a turbulent atmosphere under arbitrary conditions. The resulting evolution equation, which is obtained from an infinitesimal propagation approach, is in the form of a Fokker–Planck equation for the Wigner functional of the state and therefore incorporates functional derivatives. We show consistency with previously obtained solutions from different approaches and consider possible ways to find additional solutions for this equation.
The effect of turbulence on a pair of photons propagating together through the same medium is analyzed. The behavior is compared to the case where these photons propagate separately through different turbulent media. The analysis is done with a multiple phase screen approach, by deriving and solving an infinitesimal propagation equation. We apply these results to the case where the initial photons are entangled in their spatial degrees of freedom with the aid of spontaneous parametric down-conversion. It is found that for this input state, the decay of entanglement in correlated media under the weak scintillation approximation is quicker than in uncorrelated media. Beyond the weak scintillation approximation, the entanglement in correlated media decays slower when it is close to zero---approaching zero asymptotically as a function of scintillation strength. This is contrary to the case in uncorrelated media where entanglement becomes zero at a finite scintillation strength.