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Analytical solution to the problem of polarization drift compensation in all-fiber QKD system

Roman Shakhovoy, Vladimir Mayboroda, Nikita Rudavin, Pavel A. Kupriyanov, Oleg Fatyanov

Published Aug 16, 2024• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

A novel method for simultaneous compensation of polarization drift in a fiber-optic quantum channel and a fully fiber-optic receiver has been successfully developed, implemented, and tested using a commercial QKD system. The method is based on the exact analytical solution we derived which gives the necessary corrective transformation for polarization. Noise and imperfections in any realistic system require iterative application of the computed corrections. In our case, polarization drift compensation was completed on average in 2-3 iterations. This is an improvement by a factor of 10-100 compared to the common methods based on hill-climbing algorithms.

DOI
10.1364/opticaopen.26645338.v2

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Abstract Polarization drift in fiber and free-space optical links is a major factor in the dynamic increase of bit error rate in polarization-coded quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. A dynamic polarization compensation method applicable to both links is a challenge. Here we propose a universally applicable real-time polarization compensation method, that the Muller parameters of the optical links are first detected using a polarization detector, and then the optimal parameters of the controller are obtained by gradient descent algorithm. Simulation results indicate advantages over current methods, with fewer waveplates, faster speed, and wider applicability for various optical links. In equivalent experiments of both satellite and fiber optical links, the average polarization extinction ratio of 27.9 dB and 32.2 dB are respectively achieved. The successful implementation of our method will contribute to the real-time polarization design of fiber and free-space QKD systems, while also contributing to the design of laser-based polarization systems.
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