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Optical and Quantum Sensing and Precision Metrology II

Atmospheric turbulence simulator to test entanglement quality during propagation of photonic qubits

Keith A. Wyman, Robert J. Von-Holle, Milo Wilt Hyde IV, Anil K. Patnaik

Published Mar 8, 2023• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

To study the effects of atmospheric turbulence on the quality of entanglement of photons propagating from a ground station to a satellite and to verify if coincidence measurements of entangled photons can be used to back out atmospheric turbulence parameters for long-distance propagation or moderate-to-strong turbulence , we built an atmospheric turbulence simulator (ATS) in a laboratory setting. The ATS comprised of two afocal systems with a Lexitek phase wheel and a Meadowlark spatial light modulator representing discrete layers of atmospheric turbulence. The ATS could represent propagation distances on the order of 1km and could theoretically simulate Rytov variances as high as 5.16 and Fried parameters as low as 0.5cm for a 1m telescope. The design parameters, numerical simulations, and experimental setup is detailed in this proceeding.

DOI
10.1117/12.2663397

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To study the effects of atmospheric turbulence on the quality of entanglement of photons propagating from a ground station to a satellite and to verify if coincidence measurements of entangled photons can be used to back out atmospheric turbulence parameters for long-distance propagation or moderate-to-strong turbulence , we built an atmospheric turbulence simulator (ATS) in a laboratory setting. The ATS comprised of two afocal systems with a Lexitek phase wheel and a Meadowlark spatial light modulator representing discrete layers of atmospheric turbulence. The ATS could represent propagation distances on the order of 1km and could theoretically simulate Rytov variances as high as 5.16 and Fried parameters as low as 0.5cm for a 1m telescope. The design parameters, numerical simulations, and experimental setup is detailed in this proceeding.
The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is building a quantum optics and quantum information laboratory to study single photon phenomena and its applications. We propose an experiment to characterize the effects of atmospheric turbulence on single photons and entangled pair of photons as a function of statistical quantities that define a turbulent atmosphere (such as the Fried parameter, Greenwood frequency, Rytov variance, ect).This presentation details the initial experiment studying single photon propagation using an atmospheric turbulence simulator that statistically represents ground-to-space quantum communications.
To study long-distance free-space quantum communication links, the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) simulated, designed, built, and characterized an atmospheric turbulence simulator (ATS) with the Fried parameter ranging from 0≤ D⁄r_0 <18.2. The ATS was integrated with a non-turbulent path to conduct quantum interferometric experiments such as the heralded single photon g^2 (τ), and the two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) measurement. We observed that g^2 (0) increased to 1 and that the visibility of the HOM dip significantly decreased in moderate turbulence . Additionally, we tested the reconstruction of polarized-entangled photonic states in various turbulence regimes, and as expected, turbulence weakly affected the reconstruction of the polarization states. This presentation details the experimental setup, results, and analysis of those experiments.
We developed a laboratory-scale testbed to simulate atmospheric turbulence effects and to investigate the role of turbulence on the quantum information content of a free-space qubit transport. We report the development, characterization, and calibration of the testbed for the statistical parameters of the turbulence employing two phase screens, which produced weak to strong turbulence replicating long distances in the atmosphere for single photon propagation. By taking a long-exposure image of the point-spread function of a pinhole and analyzing the associated modulation transfer function, we measured a D / r 0 ranging from 1.04 to 23.27. Using irradiance fluctuations, we measured an on-axis scintillation index ranging from 0.25 to 2.02. The TASQ was designed to integrate a biphoton source, along with a single photon detection module to test the effect of turbulence on qubit transport. The calibrated setup will provide critical data for field experiments involving long-distance quantum networks.
Long-range quantum communication requires sending qubits, usually photonic cubits, over long distances through free space. Photons propagating through free space encounter optical turbulence, causing scattering and entanglement degradation. In recent decades, adaptive optics has been used to correct imaging errors introduced by turbulence. An atmospheric turbulence simulator has been constructed to measure the effect of optical turbulence on single photon propagation, and an adaptive optics system has been incorporated. The turbulence simulator uses two rotating phase plates to emulate the effects of random dispersive media and two afocal systems to scale long propagation distances down to lengths realizable in a laboratory. The adaptive optics system consists of a Shack-Hartman wavefront sensor used to measure wavefront error, and a deformable mirror used to correct this error. The use of adaptive optics allows us to correct wavefront errors introduced by turbulence. Adding an adaptive optics system into this simulator facilitates more robust characterization of the strength of the simulated turbulence, as well as correction of some of the negative effects the turbulence introduces. This presentation will discuss the effects of turbulence on single photon propagation when an adaptive optics system is used and how these results compare to previously measurements taken without the use of adaptive optics, allowing us to quantify the improvement adaptive optics introduces.
Quantum entanglement is critical to build the backbone of all quantum technologies. Quantum networks, quantum computations, and quantum communication networking is based on long-range distribution of entangled photons and teleportation of photon qubit states. In order to understand quantum entanglement, characterization of atmospheric turbulence and its effects on propagating quantum states in free-space is essential. One method of photon entanglement is using a photon’s polarization. In this paper, we report results using polarization entangled signal and idler photons. The results may be applicable to support various quantum computing, encryption, and other qubit based high-performance communication protocols. Classically, the degradation of beam quality occurs due to many factors but primarily due to the distortion of spatial and temporal fields of refractive index. However, behavior of single photons through similar turbulent media creates a different set of challenges pointing to integrity of quantum states during propagation. We study this behavior by analyzing quantum states and the degree of entanglement in real-time and correlating it to known atmospheric models, (refractive index structure parameter), and relevant propagation path parameters. This experimental study was performed initially in a controlled laboratory environment, and then devised to be implemented outdoors over a 100-meter free space communication link.