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Journal of Lightwave Technology

DWDM-Based Effective Group Velocity Dispersion Module for Long-Distance Quantum Communication

Jin-Woo Chae, Heebong Seo, Yoon-Ho Kim

Published Aug 26, 2024• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum states of light can be used to encode quantum information, and it can be transmitted over free-space or optical fibers for long-distance quantum communication. Since quantum signals or qubits cannot be amplified, long-distance quantum communication often requires pre-conditioning or preparation of the quantum states for a specific group velocity dispersion (GVD) of the desired fiber-optic channel, which is often difficult experimentally. Moreover, in entanglement-based quantum communication, GVD can be used as another degree of freedom to certify an entanglement signature. However, introducing and controlling large GVD with minimal loss is a challenging problem. In this work, we demonstrate a fiber-optic module capable of introducing a desired amount of GVD to the quantum signal and verify its operation using an entangled photon pair at the telecom wavelength. Our GVD module is based on dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology, and it can be easily designed and operated for various quantum communication scenarios, making it a valuable tool in implementing long-distance quantum communication in varying real-world conditions.

DOI
10.1109/jlt.2024.3450119

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Quantum states of light can be used to encode quantum information, and it can be transmitted over free-space or optical fibers for long-distance quantum communication. Since quantum signals or qubits cannot be amplified, long-distance quantum communication often requires pre-conditioning or preparation of the quantum states for a specific group velocity dispersion (GVD) of the desired fiber-optic channel, which is often difficult experimentally. Moreover, in entanglement-based quantum communication, GVD can be used as another degree of freedom to certify an entanglement signature. However, introducing and controlling large GVD with minimal loss is a challenging problem. In this work, we demonstrate a fiber-optic module capable of introducing a desired amount of GVD to the quantum signal and verify its operation using an entangled photon pair at the telecom wavelength. Our GVD module is based on dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology, and it can be easily designed and operated for various quantum communication scenarios, making it a valuable tool in implementing long-distance quantum communication in varying real-world conditions.
In this paper, we study the feasibility of conducting quantum key distribution (QKD) together with classical communication through the same optical fiber by employing dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) technology at telecom wavelength. The impact of the classical channels to the quantum channel has been investigated for both QKD based on single photon detection and QKD based on homodyne detection. Our studies show that the latter can tolerate a much higher level of contamination from the classical channels than the former. This is because the local oscillator used in the homodyne detector acts as a "mode selector" which can suppress noise photons effectively. We have performed simulations based on both the decoy BB84 QKD protocol and the Gaussian modulated coherent state (GMCS) QKD protocol. While the former cannot tolerate even one classical channel (with a power of 0dBm), the latter can be multiplexed with 38 classical channels (0dBm power each channel) and still has a secure distance around 10km. Preliminary experiment has been conducted based on a 100MHz bandwidth homodyne detector.
A fiber-based photon-pair source in the telecom C-band is suitable for quantum information science including quantum communications.Spontaneous four-wave mixing effects are known to create photon pairs that are slightly detuned from the pump wavelength only in the anomalous groupvelocity-dispersion (GVD) regime.Here, we achieve high-quality photon-pair generation slightly detuned from the pump wavelength in the normal GVD regime through a dispersion shifted fiber, for the first time.The photon pairs in C-band exhibit strong temporal correlation with each other and excellent heralded anti-bunching property.This photon-pair generation scheme can be exploited as telecom-band quantum light sources for quantum information applications.A non-classical light source is one of the key elements of quantum information processing systems, and several types of these sources have been investigated, including molecules [1], trapped atoms [2], quantum dots [3], diamond vacancy centers [4], spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) [5], and spontaneous fourwave mixing (SFWM) [6]. Among these processes, the SPDC and the SFWM processes create quantumcorrelated photon pairs from one and two pump photons, respectively, and both processes require satisfying the energy conservation as well as phase matching [7].Typically, the nonlinear coefficient of SPDC in second-order nonlinear crystals is larger than that of SFWM in amorphous single mode optical fibers as SFWM is a third-order nonlinear process.In the case of several hundred meters long single-mode fibers, however, the SFWM conversion efficiency from pump beam to photon pairs can be similar with that of the SPDC process in nonlinear crystals.In addition, the fiber based photon-pair sources are able to be directly coupled to fiber systems with negligible coupling loss, but waveguide-to-fiber coupling efficiency of a periodically poled SPDC crystal is reported about 50% [8].The SFWM process has been studied intensively for the fiber-based photon generation [6, 9-20] for quantum information applications including quantum key distribution.Photon-pair generation via SFWM is active near the zero group-velocity-dispersion (GVD) wavelength, λ ZGVD , in the anomalous GVD regime [6, 9-15] or normal GVD regime [16][17][18][19][20].In the normal GVD regime, the wavelength of the generated photon pairs is significantly detuned from the pump wavelength.In this case, Raman noise can be avoided, but the generated photon pair do not exhibit telecom-band wavelength together.On the other hand, in the anomalous GVD regime, the wavelength of the generated photon pair is slightly detuned from the pump in the telecom C-band and is strongly power dependent [16].Since the wavelength of the generated pair is sensitive to the λ ZGVD of the generation medium, several types of commercial fibers which have λ ZGVD in the telecom C-band have been investigated as the telecom C-band pair sources.Even if commercial optical fibers have small tolerances in their physical properties, it is common to have sizeable λ ZGVD variance along an optical fiber [21,22].Therefore, the precise measurement of the GVD spectrum is required, but it is often tricky with short length optical fibers.One way to overcome this problem is engineering the dispersion of a commercial fiber by heating and pulling the fiber, but this method is an ambitious research field [19,20,23].On the other hand, if a slightly detuned pair can be generated in the normal GVD regime, the constraint for the λ ZGVD of medium can be weakened, but it has not been reported to the best of our knowledge because phases are mis-matched in this regime due to the Kerr effects of the media.
Optical communication systems are able to send the information from one user to another in light beams that travel through the free space or optical fibers, therefore how to send larger amounts of information in smaller periods of time is a long term concern, one promising way is to use multiplexing of photon's different degrees of freedoms to parallel handle the large amounts of information in multiple channels independently. In this work, by combining the wavelength and time division multiplexing technologies, we prepare a multifrequency mode time bin entangled photon pair source at different time slots by using four wave mixing in a silicon nanowire waveguide, and distribute entangled photons into 3 time by 14 wavelength channels independently, which can significantly increase the bit rate compared with the single channel systems in quantum communication. Our work paves a new and promising way to achieve a high capacity quantum communication and to generate a multiple photon nonclassical state.
In view of real world applications of quantum information technologies, the combination of miniature quantum resources with existing fibre networks is a crucial issue. Among such resources, on-chip entangled photon sources play a central role for applications spanning quantum communications, computing and metrology. Here, we use a semiconductor source of entangled photons operating at room temperature in conjunction with standard telecom components to demonstrate multi-user quantum key distribution, a core protocol for securing communications in quantum networks. The source consists of an AlGaAs chip emitting polarization entangled photon pairs over a large bandwidth in the main telecom band around 1550 nm without the use of any off-chip compensation or interferometric scheme; the photon pairs are directly launched into a dense wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM) and secret keys are distributed between several pairs of users communicating through different channels. We achieve a visibility measured after the DWDM of 87% and show long-distance key distribution using a 50-km standard telecom fibre link between two network users. These results illustrate a promising route to practical, resource-efficient implementations adapted to quantum network infrastructures.
The ultimate goal of quantum information science is to build a global quantum network, which enables quantum resources to be distributed and shared between remote parties. Such a quantum network can be realized using only fiber elements, thus deriving the advantages of low transmission loss, low cost, scalability, and integrability through mature fiber communication techniques such as dense wavelength division multiplexing. Hence high-quality entangled-photon sources based on fibers are in high demand. Here we report multiplexed polarization- and time-bin-entangled photon-pair sources based on the dispersion-shifted fiber operating at room temperature. The associated high quality of entanglement is characterized using interference, Bell’s inequality, and quantum state tomography. The simultaneous presence of both types of entanglement in multi-channel pairs of a 100-GHz dense wavelength division multiplexing device indicates a great capacity in distributing entangled photons over multiple users. Our design provides a versatile platform and takes a big step toward constructing an all-fiber quantum network.
Abstract In view of real-world applications of quantum information technologies, the combination of miniature quantum resources with existing fibre networks is a crucial issue. Among such resources, on-chip entangled photon sources play a central role for applications spanning quantum communications, computing and metrology. Here, we use a semiconductor source of entangled photons operating at room temperature in conjunction with standard telecom components to demonstrate multi-user quantum key distribution, a core protocol for securing communications in quantum networks. The source consists of an AlGaAs chip-emitting polarisation entangled photon pairs over a large bandwidth in the main telecom band around 1550 nm without the use of any off-chip compensation or interferometric scheme; the photon pairs are directly launched into a dense wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM) and secret keys are distributed between several pairs of users communicating through different channels. We achieve a visibility measured after the DWDM of 87% and show long-distance key distribution using a 50-km standard telecom fibre link between two network users. These results illustrate a promising route to practical, resource-efficient implementations adapted to quantum network infrastructures.