Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

International Conference on Space Optics (ICSO)

Transportable optical ground station for QKD using adaptive optics with a plenoptic wavefront sensor

Jorge Socas, Joan Torras, Luis Fernando Rodriguez, Iciar Montilla, Á. Oscoz, Angel Alonso, Jaime Ruiz, Elena Reyes, Guillermo Fuentes, Carlos Marrero, Noelia Martínez Rey

Published Jul 12, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, IAC, and specifically its technology transfer division IACTEC, has a long history of participation in free-space optical communications projects (FSOC). These activities are nowadays being pushed forward to achieve practical applications of quantum key distribution, leveraging its facilities and experience in the FSOC field and its “know-how” in Adaptive Optics. A Free-Space Communications Laboratory has been installed at IACTEC clean rooms, intended to be used as a permanent facility where specific equipment for optical communications, quantum and classical, is available to our research and development group and its collaborators. Single photon detectors and sources, including both avalanche and superconducting nanowires(SNSPD), 16 GHz oscilloscope, FPGA-based time to digital converter, and many optical and electronic general-purpose building blocks are examples of the items existing at the facility, which should become a complement of the existing OGS telescope located at the Observatorio del Teide. The main objective of the group is to make extensive use of the well-known adaptive optics techniques for the compensation of the aberrations introduced in the communications channel by the atmospheric turbulence. Specifically, a Transportable Optical Ground Station (TOGS) with adaptive optics will be presented, designed with the aim to provide efficient transmission of quantum keys between islands or from a LEO satellite. The efficiency of coupling the received signal to a Single Mode Fibre is vital when using a SNSPD because they are commonly used as input to the cryostat, in order to minimize dark counts. When the communication optical link is expected to suffer atmospheric turbulence during its free-space path, being able to compensate them using adaptive optics could improve the coupling efficiency by a factor of 25 for a 1-meter telescope, as has been obtained in simulations carried out by our group. Our group has also found in simulations that an adaptive optics system based on the plenoptic camera will behave especially well in the situation of high turbulence, as it can be expected for sea-level communications. An optical design based in the use of the plenoptic camera as wavefront sensor for the TOGS will be presented.

DOI
10.1117/12.2691102

Related papers

Design considerations for a Transportable Optical Ground Station with Adaptive Optics

Luis Fernando Rodríguez-Ramos, Joan Torras, Noelia Martínez Rey +6 more

IACTEC, as the technology transfer division of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), is initiating a program towards the practical applications of optical communications and specifically the quantum key distribution, taking advantage of its facilities and experience in free-space optical communications and its know-how in Adaptive Optics. The main objective of the optical communication group is related to the use of the atmospheric turbulence compensation to improve the performance of a Transportable Optical Ground Station (TOGS). This compensation is especially challenging when daytime operations are considered, and also if the TOGS is expected to work in virtually any location, including ordinary city buildings, where atmospheric turbulence is much worse than that found in astrophysical observatories. The role of Adaptive Optics could be especially relevant when using superconducting nanowires detectors, which can achieve very low dark counts when fed from a single mode fiber. In this situation, the ability to couple the light received at the telescope to the fiber is vital, and if the wavefront aberration caused by the atmospheric turbulence is corrected before the coupling to the fiber, the total loss of the quantum channel will be lowered and the key rate improved. This improvement will be estimated through simulations of the atmospheric turbulence characteristics of the different scenarios.

IEEE International Conference on Space Optical Systems and Applications (ICSOS)•Mar 28, 2022•0 citations

Adaptive Optics system-box for the QKD transportable ground station at IAC

Joan Torras, Jorge Socas, Luis Fernando Rodríguez-Ramos +6 more

Free space optical communications implementing QKD protocols demand sensors with very high signal to noiseratio, compatible with the reduced size of a single-mode fiber core. The use of adaptive optics allows highdata throughput links, by correcting the aberrations generated by atmospheric turbulence. In this paper wepresent the design of an adaptive optics (AO) system-box to correct for daytime and nightime atmosphericturbulence. The system will be small enough to be implemented at the Nasmyth focus of a transmitter/receiver70cm-aperture telescope used as a Transportable Optical Ground Station in urban sites or LEO links scenariosor in the OGS at Teide Observatory 1 meter-aperture telescope. The setup will correct for aberrations basedon a plenoptic wavefront sensor camera. The optical performance of the system will be analysed, together withsimulations of turbulence to estimate the increase on the coupling from free-space to SMF

•Jan 1, 2023•0 citations

Transportable ground station for QKD using adaptive optics

Jorge Socas Negrín, Luis Fernando Rodríguez-Ramos, Joan Torras +4 more

This article summarizes the results of a system engineering approach to the design of a Transportable Optical Ground Station (TOGS) intended to be used for quantum key distribution in a number of scenarios. Key requirements are listed and a product breakdown is proposed, identifying parts, which are specific to a particular scenario and others, which are common to many of them, and thus will allow their implementation to be shared. We are proposing the use of Adaptive Optics (AO) for compensation of the effects of the atmospheric turbulence, in order to improve the efficiency of the signal coupling to a Single-Mode Fiber.

Free-space laser communication technologies. Conference•Mar 4, 2022•0 citations

Enabling efficient quantum communications with adaptive optics

Noelia Martínez Rey, Joan Torras, Ángel Alonso-Sánchez +3 more

Superconducting nanowire detectors fed by single mode fibres are essential to minimize dark counts in a quantum communication receiver. Efficient coupling of the received light to the single mode fibre is fundamental for the system performance, but it gets deeply affected by the atmospheric turbulence. Adaptive Optics measure and correct for the atmosphere effect on the light optimising the fibre coupling. An Adaptive Optics system is proposed to be installed at the ground station that will receive quantum key distribution from a geostationary satellite. Numerical simulations have been performed for this scenario; the improvement in the fibre coupling have been assessed with and without atmospheric turbulence correction. The present paper encapsulates the simulation framework and main findings, showing the potential for this technology in the quantum communications niche.

Free-space laser communication technologies. Conference•Mar 4, 2022•3 citations

Adaptive Optics for Free-Space Optical Communication and Quantum Key Distribution

Ido Shlomy, Yizhar Fahima, John Miller +2 more

This article offers a solution to the fragmentation problem through a unified model and simulation showing how Adaptive Optics (AO) improves both classical and quantum communications. Free-space optical links can carry Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) over distances that cannot be reached with fiber; however, atmospheric turbulence corrupts the wavefront. For a single-mode quantum receiver, this drives the quantum bit error rate above the security threshold before detector noise can even be considered. AO addresses this by restoring the wavefront and recovering the coupling loss. The theory, mitigation techniques, and quantum security analysis needed to understand this are spread across three research communities that rarely cite one another: atmospheric turbulence and AO theory, classical modulation over fading channels, and BB84 quantum key distribution. We consolidate and develops all three topics in order to trace the chain from wavefront error to bit error rate and secret key rate. We survey six families of turbulence mitigation and provide an assessment of their suitability for single-mode quantum links. In addition, we survey the free-space QKD experimental record, from terrestrial hops to satellite downlinks. A wave optics case study of a representative 500-km Low Earth Orbit (LEO) downlink, corrected by a closed-loop Shack–Hartmann and deformable-mirror receiver at 1.55 μm ties the review together. Across a turbulence sweep, the correction stabilizes single-mode coupling near its physical ceiling, while the uncorrected channel varies by more than an order of magnitude. When carried into the downlink budget, this lifts the quantum link across the 11% security bound at 12 of 15 turbulence conditions where the uncorrected link yields no key, thereby restoring a secure quantum bit error rate in a narrow 4.2–4.9% band throughout and a secret key rate of 7.6–11.2 kbit/s while simultaneously widening the margin of the co-propagating classical channel above its forward error correction threshold.

Symmetry•Oct 28, 2026•0 citations

Design and implementation of a mobile optical ground station for air-to-ground FSOC-links

Peter Krause, Marcel Rothe, Ingo Gebhart +4 more

We present QuBUS, a mobile optical ground station designed for free-space optical communication (FSOC) and quantum key distribution (QKD). Built into a transportable lab container, QuBUS includes key subsystems such as an optical antenna with uplink lasers, a freeform telescope, acquisition and tracking hardware, relay optics, and an adaptive optics system for single-mode fiber coupling. The station is being prepared for an air-to-ground quantum communication experiment involving an aircraft-based transmitter. Initial 7-km horizontal link tests validate core functionalities, demonstrating QuBUS’s potential as a compact and deployable platform for future secure quantum communication networks.

Free-space laser communication technologies. Conference•Mar 5, 2026•1 citation
The Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, IAC, and specifically its technology transfer division IACTEC, has a long history of participation in free-space optical communications projects (FSOC). These activities are nowadays being pushed forward to achieve practical applications of quantum key distribution, leveraging its facilities and experience in the FSOC field and its “know-how” in Adaptive Optics. A Free-Space Communications Laboratory has been installed at IACTEC clean rooms, intended to be used as a permanent facility where specific equipment for optical communications, quantum and classical, is available to our research and development group and its collaborators. Single photon detectors and sources, including both avalanche and superconducting nanowires(SNSPD), 16 GHz oscilloscope, FPGA-based time to digital converter, and many optical and electronic general-purpose building blocks are examples of the items existing at the facility, which should become a complement of the existing OGS telescope located at the Observatorio del Teide. The main objective of the group is to make extensive use of the well-known adaptive optics techniques for the compensation of the aberrations introduced in the communications channel by the atmospheric turbulence. Specifically, a Transportable Optical Ground Station (TOGS) with adaptive optics will be presented, designed with the aim to provide efficient transmission of quantum keys between islands or from a LEO satellite. The efficiency of coupling the received signal to a Single Mode Fibre is vital when using a SNSPD because they are commonly used as input to the cryostat, in order to minimize dark counts. When the communication optical link is expected to suffer atmospheric turbulence during its free-space path, being able to compensate them using adaptive optics could improve the coupling efficiency by a factor of 25 for a 1-meter telescope, as has been obtained in simulations carried out by our group. Our group has also found in simulations that an adaptive optics system based on the plenoptic camera will behave especially well in the situation of high turbulence, as it can be expected for sea-level communications. An optical design based in the use of the plenoptic camera as wavefront sensor for the TOGS will be presented.
IACTEC, as the technology transfer division of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), is initiating a program towards the practical applications of optical communications and specifically the quantum key distribution, taking advantage of its facilities and experience in free-space optical communications and its know-how in Adaptive Optics. The main objective of the optical communication group is related to the use of the atmospheric turbulence compensation to improve the performance of a Transportable Optical Ground Station (TOGS). This compensation is especially challenging when daytime operations are considered, and also if the TOGS is expected to work in virtually any location, including ordinary city buildings, where atmospheric turbulence is much worse than that found in astrophysical observatories. The role of Adaptive Optics could be especially relevant when using superconducting nanowires detectors, which can achieve very low dark counts when fed from a single mode fiber. In this situation, the ability to couple the light received at the telescope to the fiber is vital, and if the wavefront aberration caused by the atmospheric turbulence is corrected before the coupling to the fiber, the total loss of the quantum channel will be lowered and the key rate improved. This improvement will be estimated through simulations of the atmospheric turbulence characteristics of the different scenarios.
Free space optical communications implementing QKD protocols demand sensors with very high signal to noiseratio, compatible with the reduced size of a single-mode fiber core. The use of adaptive optics allows highdata throughput links, by correcting the aberrations generated by atmospheric turbulence. In this paper wepresent the design of an adaptive optics (AO) system-box to correct for daytime and nightime atmosphericturbulence. The system will be small enough to be implemented at the Nasmyth focus of a transmitter/receiver70cm-aperture telescope used as a Transportable Optical Ground Station in urban sites or LEO links scenariosor in the OGS at Teide Observatory 1 meter-aperture telescope. The setup will correct for aberrations basedon a plenoptic wavefront sensor camera. The optical performance of the system will be analysed, together withsimulations of turbulence to estimate the increase on the coupling from free-space to SMF
This article summarizes the results of a system engineering approach to the design of a Transportable Optical Ground Station (TOGS) intended to be used for quantum key distribution in a number of scenarios. Key requirements are listed and a product breakdown is proposed, identifying parts, which are specific to a particular scenario and others, which are common to many of them, and thus will allow their implementation to be shared. We are proposing the use of Adaptive Optics (AO) for compensation of the effects of the atmospheric turbulence, in order to improve the efficiency of the signal coupling to a Single-Mode Fiber.
Superconducting nanowire detectors fed by single mode fibres are essential to minimize dark counts in a quantum communication receiver. Efficient coupling of the received light to the single mode fibre is fundamental for the system performance, but it gets deeply affected by the atmospheric turbulence. Adaptive Optics measure and correct for the atmosphere effect on the light optimising the fibre coupling. An Adaptive Optics system is proposed to be installed at the ground station that will receive quantum key distribution from a geostationary satellite. Numerical simulations have been performed for this scenario; the improvement in the fibre coupling have been assessed with and without atmospheric turbulence correction. The present paper encapsulates the simulation framework and main findings, showing the potential for this technology in the quantum communications niche.
This article offers a solution to the fragmentation problem through a unified model and simulation showing how Adaptive Optics (AO) improves both classical and quantum communications. Free-space optical links can carry Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) over distances that cannot be reached with fiber; however, atmospheric turbulence corrupts the wavefront. For a single-mode quantum receiver, this drives the quantum bit error rate above the security threshold before detector noise can even be considered. AO addresses this by restoring the wavefront and recovering the coupling loss. The theory, mitigation techniques, and quantum security analysis needed to understand this are spread across three research communities that rarely cite one another: atmospheric turbulence and AO theory, classical modulation over fading channels, and BB84 quantum key distribution. We consolidate and develops all three topics in order to trace the chain from wavefront error to bit error rate and secret key rate. We survey six families of turbulence mitigation and provide an assessment of their suitability for single-mode quantum links. In addition, we survey the free-space QKD experimental record, from terrestrial hops to satellite downlinks. A wave optics case study of a representative 500-km Low Earth Orbit (LEO) downlink, corrected by a closed-loop Shack–Hartmann and deformable-mirror receiver at 1.55 μm ties the review together. Across a turbulence sweep, the correction stabilizes single-mode coupling near its physical ceiling, while the uncorrected channel varies by more than an order of magnitude. When carried into the downlink budget, this lifts the quantum link across the 11% security bound at 12 of 15 turbulence conditions where the uncorrected link yields no key, thereby restoring a secure quantum bit error rate in a narrow 4.2–4.9% band throughout and a secret key rate of 7.6–11.2 kbit/s while simultaneously widening the margin of the co-propagating classical channel above its forward error correction threshold.
We present QuBUS, a mobile optical ground station designed for free-space optical communication (FSOC) and quantum key distribution (QKD). Built into a transportable lab container, QuBUS includes key subsystems such as an optical antenna with uplink lasers, a freeform telescope, acquisition and tracking hardware, relay optics, and an adaptive optics system for single-mode fiber coupling. The station is being prepared for an air-to-ground quantum communication experiment involving an aircraft-based transmitter. Initial 7-km horizontal link tests validate core functionalities, demonstrating QuBUS’s potential as a compact and deployable platform for future secure quantum communication networks.