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Practical Real-Time Phase Drift Compensation Scheme for Quantum Communication Systems

Xiaotian Song, Chunsheng Zhang, Dong Pan, Min Wang, Jianxing Guo, Feihao Zhang, Guilu Long

Published Oct 1, 2023• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum communication systems are susceptible to various perturbations and drifts arising from the operational environment, with phase drift being a crucial challenge. In this paper, we propose an efficient real-time phase drift compensation scheme in which only existing data from the quantum communication process is used to establish a stable closed-loop control subsystem for phase tracking. This scheme ensures the continuous operation of transmission by tracking and compensating for phase drift in the phase-encoding quantum communication system. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed scheme with an average quantum bit error rate of 1.60% and a standard deviation of 0.0583% for 16 h of continuous operation.

DOI
10.3390/e25101408

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Quantum communication systems are susceptible to various perturbations and drifts arising from the operational environment, with phase drift being a crucial challenge. In this paper, we propose an efficient real-time phase drift compensation scheme in which only existing data from the quantum communication process is used to establish a stable closed-loop control subsystem for phase tracking. This scheme ensures the continuous operation of transmission by tracking and compensating for phase drift in the phase-encoding quantum communication system. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed scheme with an average quantum bit error rate of 1.60% and a standard deviation of 0.0583% for 16 h of continuous operation.
Phase drift is an inevitable problem in the practical implementation of phase-coding quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. Conventional active phase tracking and compensation solutions cannot be implemented during the key transmission process, resulting in reduced efficiency of the system. In this paper, we propose a single-photon level real-time phase tracking scheme using only the estimated quantum bit error rate (QBER) and mismatched-basis data to acquire the phase drift parameter instead of a phase scanning process or reference light pulses, without extra hardware or interrupting the transmission of quantum signals. This scheme is applied into a phase-coding QKD system with active phase disturbance and obtains an average QBER of 1.01%1.01\%1.01% with a standard derivation of 0.37%0.37\%0.37% over 50 h of continuous operation. Experimental results show that this scheme enables QKD systems to operate continuously with long-term stability and keep a low level of QBER even with rapid phase drift, suggesting its suitability for practical applications.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems face challenges due to quantum state drift caused by environmental variations. This paper introduces a phase drift compensation algorithm for QKD systems based on Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks. This algorithm only learns, predicts, and compensates for phase drift from intermediate data generated during QKD transmission, without the need for additional data acquisition modules such as environmental monitoring. The experimental results show that the algorithm has high accuracy in tracking phase drift. It performs well on the test set and can accurately match actual scanned data. When implemented in practical GHz QKD systems, this algorithm can increase transmission efficiency by 15 % without reducing the bit error rate. In addition, as the algorithm does not rely on environmental monitoring equipment or high-intensity emission light conditions, it enhances the security of the system and reduces potential security risks.
Phase drift is an inherent problem in phase-encoded quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. The current active phase tracking and compensation solutions cannot satisfy the requirements of a system with nonlinearity in phase modulation. This paper presents a four-phase scanning method, which is based on the quantitative analysis of the quantum bit error rate (QBER) from phase drift and the performance requirements of phase compensation. By obtaining the four interference fringes and adjusting the coding matrix of the system, this method automatically calculates the accurate driving voltages for the phase modulator. The implementation and experimental tests show that the proposed method can compensate phase drift caused by environmental changes and the system’s nonlinearity, and is applicable to large-scale QKD networks.
Phase-sensitive quantum communication has received considerable attention to overcome the distance limitation of quantum communication. A fundamental problem in phase-sensitive quantum communication is to compensate phase drift in an optical fiber channel. A combination of time-, wavelength-, and space-division phase compensation can improve the phase stability of the optical fiber. However, the existing phase compensations have used only time- and wavelength-division compensation. Here, we demonstrate space-division multiplexed phase compensation in the Osaka metropolitan networks. Our compensation scheme uses two neighboring fibers, one for quantum communication and the other for sensing and compensating the phase drift. Our field investigations confirm the correlation of the phase drift patterns between the two neighboring fibers. Thanks to the correlation, our space-division multiplexed phase compensation significantly reduces the phase drift and improves the quantum bit error rate. Hence, our experimental study has established the space-division multiplexed phase compensation scheme. We also propose a hybrid scheme of space-wavelength-time-division multiplexed phase compensation for twin-field quantum key distribution and a quantum repeater system.
Phase drift caused by environment is the main source of quantum bit error rate and instability in the double M-Z interferometer quantum key distribution(QKD) system. The phase drift consists of both high-frequency and low-frequency vibrations, the former, which is due to environment noise, is usually conducted via the atmosphere and can be isolated by technological measures (e.g. using foamed-plastics wrapping or rubber pillow ), the latter comes from building-vibration, which vibrates slowly with a serious impact on M-Z interferometer, with a period of 3±0.32 min (min level). A novel real-time tracking and compensation method for phase drift caused by low-frequency vibration is proposed. With the improved scheme, the QKD system based on double M-Z interferometers can operate stably for 24 hours, and key exchange with an error below 6% over 75 kilometers has been achieved in the lab.
Robust quantum transmission is driving a new paradigm in space-ground quantum networking. Although phase encoding has been widely adopted in terrestrial fiber channels, it has long been considered unsuitable for free-space quantum communication. Here, we demonstrate phase-encoded quantum communication over 1400 m of urban free space. The system maintained stable operation for nearly one hour, achieving 99.07% interference visibility and an average quantum bit error rate of 2.38%. The free-space quantum states were directly coupled into the fiber and transmitted over an additional 10 km, confirming seamless interoperability across different media. We further show that turbulence-induced phase drifts between successive picosecond pulses can be effectively compensated. A cascaded-link model and numerical simulations indicate feasibility over free-space distances exceeding 30 km, underscoring the potential for satellite-to-ground quantum links. This work establishes the viability of phase encoding in free-space quantum networks, simplifying cross-medium integration and enabling compatibility with existing classical infrastructures.