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arXiv:1810.04044 · New Journal of Physics

Entanglement protection of high-dimensional states by adaptive optics

Giacomo Sorelli, Nina Leonhard, Vyacheslav N Shatokhin, Claudia Reinlein, Andreas Buchleitner

Published Jan 22, 2019• 49 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We theoretically study the potential of adaptive optics (AO) to protect entanglement of highdimensional photonic orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) states against turbulence-induced phase distortions.We demonstrate that AO is able to reduce crosstalk among the OAM modes and, consequently, the entanglement decay as well as photon losses.A test of the AO-stabilized output state against high-dimensional Bell inequalities shows that the transmitted entanglement allows for secure communication, even in the strong scintillation regime.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/ab006e

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We theoretically study the potential of adaptive optics (AO) to protect entanglement of highdimensional photonic orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) states against turbulence-induced phase distortions.We demonstrate that AO is able to reduce crosstalk among the OAM modes and, consequently, the entanglement decay as well as photon losses.A test of the AO-stabilized output state against high-dimensional Bell inequalities shows that the transmitted entanglement allows for secure communication, even in the strong scintillation regime.
Quantum key distribution is a promising candidate to ensure secure communication in the future. Higher-dimensional state spaces as provided by the orbital angular momentum of photons (OAM) could further improve the security and robustness to noise. When transmitted through free-space, these photons experience atmospheric turbulence which introduces distortions to the encoded OAM. A technologoy called adaptive optics has been developed in astronomy to counter-act turbulence-induced distortion. While the application of adaptive optics has been considered in the context of classical OAM communication, this thesis presents the first results for OAM-based quantum key distribution. The main result of this thesis is that the losses of the quantum mechanical properties of OAM photons in atmospheric can be mitigated by adaptive optics. Both the entanglement and the trace of the final state's density matrix can be significantly improved. Furthermore, the security of the quantum key distribution protocol can be ensured for two to three times stronger turbulence as measured by the Fried parameter. The presented results demonstrate the great potential of adaptive optics for OAM quantum cryptography.
The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons is a promising degree of freedom for high-dimensional quantum key distribution (QKD). Due to the greater flexibility in applications and the lower loss, QAM QKD over the free-space channel is still significant. However, effectively mitigating the adverse effects of atmospheric turbulence is a persistent challenge. In contrast to previous works focusing on correcting static simulated turbulence, we investigate the performance of OAM QKD in real atmospheric turbulence with real-time adaptive optics (AO) correction. We show that, it is possible to mitigate the errors induced by weak turbulence and establish a secure channel under some conditions. The cross-talk induced by turbulence and the performance of AO systems are investigated in a lab-scale link with controllable turbulence. The relations between the crosstalk and AO specifications is also studied. Our experimental results suggest that an advanced AO system with fine beam tracking, reliable beam stabilization, precise wavefront sensing and accurate wavefront correction is necessary to adequately correct turbulence-induced error.
The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons is a promising degree of freedom for high-dimensional quantum key distribution (QKD). However, effectively mitigating the adverse effects of atmospheric turbulence is a persistent challenge in OAM QKD systems operating over free-space communication channels. In contrast to previous works focusing on correcting static simulated turbulence, we investigate the performance of OAM QKD in real atmospheric turbulence with real-time adaptive optics (AO) correction. We show that even though our AO system provides a limited correction, it is possible to mitigate the errors induced by weak turbulence and establish a secure channel. The crosstalk induced by turbulence and the performance of AO systems is investigated in two configurations: a lab-scale link with controllable turbulence, and a 340 m long cross-campus link with dynamic atmospheric turbulence. Our experimental results suggest that an advanced AO system with fine beam tracking, reliable beam stabilization, precise wavefront sensing, and accurate wavefront correction is necessary to adequately correct turbulence-induced error. We also propose and demonstrate different solutions to improve the performance of OAM QKD with turbulence, which could enable the possibility of OAM encoding in strong turbulence.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) promises a provably secure method to transmit information from one party to another. Free-space QKD allows for this information to be sent over great distances and in places where fibre-based communications cannot be implemented, such as ground-satellite. The primary limiting factor for free-space links is the effect of atmospheric turbulence, which can result in significant error rates and increased losses in QKD channels. Here, we employ the use of a high-speed Adaptive Optics (AO) system to make real-time corrections to the wavefront distortions on spatial modes that are used for high-dimensional QKD in our turbulent channel. First, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the AO system in improving the coupling efficiency of a Gaussian mode that has propagated through turbulence. Through process tomography, we show that our system is capable of significantly reducing the crosstalk of spatial modes in the channel. Finally, we show that employing AO reduces the quantum dit error rate for a high-dimensional orbital angular momentum-based QKD protocol, allowing for secure communication in a channel where it would otherwise be impossible. These results are promising for establishing long-distance free-space QKD systems. High-dimensional quantum key distribution will allow for higher information density and greater error tolerance in future quantum networks. This work experimentally demonstrates how implementing an adaptive optics system in a spatial-mode free-space optical link can allow for quantum communications where it would otherwise be impossible.
In this paper, we describe the study of the faithful propagation of entangled orbital angular momentum states of light under atmospheric turbulence. The spatial mode is encoded in the Ince-Gauss modes that constitute a complete family of exact and orthogonal solutions of the paraxial wave equation in an elliptic coordinate system. Adaptive optics is employed to protect the entanglement from degradation, in which the threshold of turbulence strength could be enhanced for a reliable entanglement distribution. We find that the evolution of entanglements relies on ellipticity and shows the opposite trend when adopting adaptive optics. The turbulence strengths, at which the concurrences of various entangled states become zero, are different without adaptive optics but almost the same with adaptive optics. The trace of the density matrix is independent of the different ellipticity with or without adaptive optics. We believe that this investigation is useful for long-distance quantum communications and quantum networks using orbital angular momentum as information carriers.