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arXiv:1704.05970

Enhanced transmission capacity for laser communication at the single-photon level using the multi-channel frequency coding scheme

Jianyong Hu, Bo Yu, Mingyong Jing, Liantuan Xiao, Suotang Jia

Published Apr 20, 2017• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The statistical properties of a radiation sources are commonly characterized by second-order-correlation or Mandel parameter. Our research found that the single photons modulation spectrum provides us another optional way which is more sensitive to the high frequency information contained in the photon sequence. In this paper, we present direct laser communication by using a multi-channel frequency coding scheme based on the single photons modulation spectrum in which the multi-frequency modulation makes the transmission capacity efficiently enhanced. The modulation frequencies could be operated in a wide band without frequency aliasing due to the inherent randomness of photons arrival time of weak coherent light. The error rate less than 10-5 has been achieved experimentally when the mean signal photon count is 80 kcps. The modulated coherent light field shows nonlinear effects of single photons modulation spectrum. The studies of statistical properties of the single photons modulation spectrum, including the dependence of mean noise photon count, integration time, channel spacing and the number of frequency component, helped us to optimize the error rate and transmission capacity.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1704.05970

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The statistical properties of a radiation sources are commonly characterized by second-order-correlation or Mandel parameter. Our research found that the single photons modulation spectrum provides us another optional way which is more sensitive to the high frequency information contained in the photon sequence. In this paper, we present direct laser communication by using a multi-channel frequency coding scheme based on the single photons modulation spectrum in which the multi-frequency modulation makes the transmission capacity efficiently enhanced. The modulation frequencies could be operated in a wide band without frequency aliasing due to the inherent randomness of photons arrival time of weak coherent light. The error rate less than 10-5 has been achieved experimentally when the mean signal photon count is 80 kcps. The modulated coherent light field shows nonlinear effects of single photons modulation spectrum. The studies of statistical properties of the single photons modulation spectrum, including the dependence of mean noise photon count, integration time, channel spacing and the number of frequency component, helped us to optimize the error rate and transmission capacity.
In this paper, optical communication at the single-photon level is experimentally demonstrated by using a multi-channel frequency coding scheme in which the information is decoded by using the single-photons modulation spectrum. By using the modulation spectrum, the coding scheme could work normally in a channel with high loss and noise. Besides, multiple modulation frequency components could be used in a wide bandwidth regardless of frequency aliasing; therefore, the multi-channel frequency coding scheme makes it possible for high-capacity single-photons communication.
This paper presents a practical optical communication framework that transmits binary information using distinct coherent states characterized by different mean photon numbers and detects the received signals via threshold-based photon counting. Unlike conventional approaches that often assume idealized detection environments, we rigorously analyze the performance of the proposed scheme under three realistic scenarios: (i) noise-free channels, (ii) channels impaired by additive Poisson noise, and (iii) turbulent free-space optical channels with fading and background noise. The coherent-state modulation enables energy-efficient transmission in the quantum-limited regime while the photon-counting receiver employs a statistically optimized decision threshold to discriminate between received photon-count levels. To address the lack of instantaneous channel state information in fading environments, we further propose a pilot-based channel estimation method that enables adaptive threshold selection. Closed-form expressions for decision thresholds and error probabilities are derived, and the effectiveness of the scheme is validated through detailed numerical simulations. These results offer design insights for photon-efficient, low-power optical communication systems operating under realistic physical impairments.
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Abstract High-dimensional quantum states are potential resources to enhance the channel capacity of information transmission over noisy channels. However, the over-consumption of entanglement and joint measurement make previous proposals of information transmission unpractical , taking quantum dense coding as an example. In this paper, we report high-capacity information transmission over a collective noisy channel using single-photon states both in polarization and spatial mode degrees of freedom and quantum channel multiplexing. Our proposal can reach the same channel capacity as quantum dense coding, even over the collective noisy channel. These results will provide an optional and feasible method to high-capacity information transmission and help to promote the practicability of quantum communication.
The development of modern technology extends human presence beyond cislunar space and onto other planets, which presents an urgent need for high-capacity, long-distance and interplanetary communication. Communication using photons as carriers has a high channel capacity, but the optical diffraction limit in deep space leads to inevitable huge geometric loss, setting an insurmountable transmission distance for existing optical communication technologies. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a photon-inter-correlation optical communication (PICOC) against an ultra-high channel loss. We treat light as a stream of photons, and retrieve the additional information of internal correlation and photon statistics globally from extremely weak pulse sequences. We successfully manage to build high-fidelity communication channel with a loss up to 160dB by separating a single-photon signal embedded in a noise ten times higher. With only commercially available telescopes, PICOC allows establishment of communication links from Mars to Earth communication using a milliwatt laser, and from the edge of the solar system to Earth using a few watts laser.
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