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2012 International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC)

Effects of the atmospheric turbulence on the single photon transmission in quantum channel

Nan Zhao, Xiao Yang Wang, Nan Chen

Published Mar 1, 2018• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The physical processes that contribute to the single photon fading and loss need to be carefully analyzed in the theory of quantum light transmission through the atmospheric turbulence. Here we propose a single photon receiving model, and analyze the influence of the atmospheric turbulence on the single photon transmission. We simulate and analyze the photon counting and the final key generation rate under different intensity of the atmospheric turbulence. Our model can be used to reflect the optical coupling and loss between transmitter and receiving terminal.

DOI
10.1109/iccnc.2018.8390392

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•Oct 5, 2017•11 citations
The physical processes that contribute to the single photon fading and loss need to be carefully analyzed in the theory of quantum light transmission through the atmospheric turbulence. Here we propose a single photon receiving model, and analyze the influence of the atmospheric turbulence on the single photon transmission. We simulate and analyze the photon counting and the final key generation rate under different intensity of the atmospheric turbulence. Our model can be used to reflect the optical coupling and loss between transmitter and receiving terminal.
The free-space transfer of high-fidelity optical signals between remote locations has many applications, including both classical and quantum communication, precision navigation, clock synchronization, etc. The physical processes that contribute to signal fading and loss need to be carefully analyzed in the theory of light propagation through the atmospheric turbulence. Here we derive the probability distribution for the atmospheric transmittance including beam wandering, beam shape deformation, and beam-broadening effects. Our model, referred to as the elliptic beam approximation, applies to weak, weak-to-moderate, and strong turbulence and hence to the most important regimes in atmospheric communication scenarios.
Atmospheric turbulence is one of the lead disturbance factors for free-space quantum communication. The quantum states of light in such channels are affected by fluctuating losses characterized by the probability distribution of transmittance (PDT). We obtain the PDT for different horizontal links via numerical simulations of light transmission through the atmosphere. The results are compared with analytical models: the truncated log-normal distribution, the beam-wandering model, the elliptic-beam approximation, and the model based on the law of total probability. Their applicability is shown to be strongly dependent on the receiver aperture radius. We introduce an empirical model based on the Beta distribution, which is in good agreement with numerical simulations for a wide range of channel parameters. However, there are still scenarios where none of the above analytical models fits the numerically simulated data. The numerical simulation is then used to analyze the transmission of quadrature-squeezed light through free-space channels.
A multiple-input single-output configuration is used to study the effectiveness of spatial diversity in reducing single-photon losses caused by atmospheric turbulence in quantum communications over free-space. The system consists of two transmitters and a single receiver, where two parallel beams are transmitted, each comprising a 660-nm beacon and a 515-nm collinear single-photon signal. The beacon is intended to compare the turbulence conditions on each path to determine the most suitable transmitter for the single-photon signal. An outdoor experimental campaign with a propagation distance of 500 meters was conducted to obtain results under real turbulence conditions. First, the correlation between the 515-nm and 660-nm collinear signals was measured at 0.82, showing that the beacon signal accurately represents the state of turbulence affecting the single-photon signal most of the time. The spatial correlation was measured at separation distances between the transmitters of 12 and 20 centimeters, yielding correlation coefficients of 0.35 and 0.17, respectively. As expected, the spatial correlation decreases with increasing separation distance. Finally, a slight improvement in the detection of the single-photon signal was observed when using spatial diversity, but further improvements to the system and longer propagation distances are needed to obtain more promising results.
Spatial diversity is a technique widely used in wireless communications to enhance the signal quality at the receiver. We propose a multiple-input single-output system that utilizes this technique to enhance a free-space optics quantum communication link by reducing the amount of photon losses caused by atmospheric turbulence, thus increasing the capacity of the quantum channel. The system consists of two transmitters with uncorrelated optical paths, and a single receiver. A 515-nm quantum signal is transmitted through the transmission path with the highest gain, dynamically chosen by comparing the signal distortions of a 660-nm classical signal. Preliminary experiments with a single transmitter have been conducted in a laboratory environment with atmospheric turbulence generated via heat guns. We observed that the single-photon channel is highly correlated with the fluctuations of the 660-nm classical signal, so that an improvement in the former is expected when selecting the path with highest gain. The number of photon counts received was compared with the turbulence-free scenario, revealing that the mean number of counts decreased, and its standard deviation increased when turbulence is present, as expected.
Aiming at the transmission of polarization encoded single photons in turbulent atmosphere, the random turbulence is modeled as atmospheric bubbles with various refractive indexes so as to conceive the propagation process of single photon using geometric optics.The fluctuation of photon transmission ratio k has been quantitatively calculated which is revealed as the relationship between transmission ratio and incident angle or turbulence scale.Based on that, the quantum bit error rate(QBER) and polarization fidelity of single photons are analyzed respectively which are both caused by the misalignment of polarization state after continuous refractions.Then the three dimensional relationship of k and polarization error rate Q are simulated with random incident angle or turbulence scale.
The efficient coupling of photons from a free-space quantum channel into a single-mode optical fiber (SMF) has important implications to quantum network concepts involving SMF interfaces to quantum detectors, atomic systems, integrated photonics and direct coupling to a fiber network. Propagation through atmospheric turbulence however leads to wavefront errors that degrade mode-matching with SMFs. In a free-space quantum channel, this leads to photon losses in proportion to the severity of the aberration. This is particularly problematic for satellite-Earth quantum channels where atmospheric turbulence can lead to significant wavefront errors. This report considers propagation from a transmitter in low-Earth orbit to a terrestrial ground station and evaluates the efficiency with which photons couple either through a circular field stop or into a SMF situated in the focal plane of the optical receiver. The effects of atmospheric turbulence on the quantum channel are calculated numerically and quantified through the quantum bit error rate and secure key generation rates in a decoy-state BB84 protocol. Numerical simulations include the statistical nature of Kolmogorov turbulence, sky radiance, and an adaptive optics system under closed loop control.