Adaptive-Optics-Enabled Quantum Communication: A Technique for Daytime Space-To-Earth Links

Gruneisen, Mark T.; Eickhoff, Mark; Newey, Scott; Stoltenberg, Kurt E.; Morris, Jeffery F.; Bareian, Michael; Harris, Mark Anglin; Oesch, Denis W.; Oliker, Michael D.; Flanagan, Michael; Kay, Brian T.; Schiller, Jonathan D.; Lanning, R. Nicholas

doi:10.1103/physrevapplied.16.014067

Cited by 33 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…where Ω F OV is the field-of-view of the fiber, A rec = π(D rec /2) 2 = 1.77 m 2 is the area of the receiving telescope, B f ilter = 0.8 nm is the bandwidth of the receiving filter and λ = 1550 nm is the wavelength of the radiation [23]. The efficiencies of the receiver optical system η opt and of the detectors η d are the same used in the simulations.…”

Section: Background Noise In Dv-qkdmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…where D rec is the diameter of the receiving telescope. This estimation assumes a diffraction limited receiving system with no central obstruction [23] and approximates the Airy disk as a Gaussian point spread function (PSF) with waist 0.45λf /D rec [70]. With these approximation, we get N b = 1 • 10 3 photons/s, from which we calculate…”

Section: Background Noise In Dv-qkdmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of adaptive optics (AO) to compensate for the free-space channel induced perturbations is a promising solution. Because they offer the possibility to compensate in real time the phase fluctuations induced by atmospheric turbulence, AO systems are commonly used in astronomy [21] and are becoming a key technology for free-space optical telecommunications [22], as well as for free-space QKD [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Further effort thus needs to be made to finely model the atmospheric channel, in view of proposing a dedicated means of optimizing the link performance and of ultimately reaching a reliable system design [30,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution with adaptive optics

Acosta¹,

Dequal²,

Schiavon³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Future quantum communication infrastructures will rely on both terrestrial and space-based links integrating high-performance optical systems engineered for this purpose. In space-based downlinks in particular, the loss budget and the variations in the signal propagation due to atmospheric turbulence effects impose a careful optimization of the coupling of light in single-mode fibers required for interfacing with the receiving stations and the ground networks. In this work, we perform a comprehensive study of the role of adaptive optics (AO) in this optimization, focusing on realistic baseline configurations of prepare-and-measure quantum key distribution (QKD), with both discrete and continuous-variable encoding, and including finite-size effects. Our analysis uses existing experimental turbulence datasets at both day and night time to model the coupled signal statistics following a wavefront distortion correction with AO, and allows us to estimate the secret key rate for a range of critical parameters, such as turbulence strength, satellite altitude and ground telescope diameter. The results we derive illustrate the interest of adopting advanced AO techniques in several practical configurations.

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Section: Background Noise In Dv-qkdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background Noise In Dv-qkdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Analysis of satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution with adaptive optics

Acosta¹,

Dequal²,

Schiavon³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As a result, the majority of space-based quantum communications experiments have been conducted during the night to reduce the background noise collected by the detector [2][3][4][5]. Recent research on daytime optical link communications has sought to reduce the effects of background light by using enhancements such as adaptive optics [2], a small field of view (FOV) telescope, wavelength filters, or a timing gate [6]. Although the continued development of techniques for distinguishing quantum signal from background will help to expand the operational range of quantum communications systems, background photons cannot be eliminated entirely.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical noise in a free-space quantum communications link from natural and nuclear disturbed environments*

et al. 2022

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Satellite communications at radio frequencies can experience a "blackout" period following the atmospheric detonation of a nuclear weapon. The wavelengths used for free-space quantum communications will not incur the same "blackout" effects from a nuclear detonation, but the optical systems will suffer from a phenomenon called redout. Redout occurs in an optical detector when ambient light scatters into the optical receiver, causing elevated background photon counts in the detector such that background noise overwhelms the signal. In this work, the duration of the redout effect is quantified from a nuclear disturbed environment on a ground-to-space quantum optical link. In addition, we comment on various techniques for reducing ambient and nuclear disturbed background counts in a quantum free-space optical link. For low altitude nuclear detonations (i.e., under 50 km), the maximum interference time will be less than 1 min. Implementing a telescope, timing gate, and wavelength filter to the detector can reduce the background counts in the detector significantly. Aerosol levels and ground albedo are major contributors to background noise in a ground-to-satellite quantum channel, and ground station location should factor in both variables.

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“…This could facilitate distributed quantum computation, blind quantum computation, quantum-assisted imaging, and precise timing, to name just a few proposed applications [9][10][11]. An enduring problem is the ideal wavelength for freespace quantum communication over atmospheric channels, particularly in daytime conditions where filtering sky-noise photons is a formidable challenge [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum Communication over Atmospheric Channels: A Framework for Optimizing Wavelength and Filtering

et al. 2021

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Despite quantum networking concepts, designs, and hardware becoming increasingly mature, there is no consensus on the optimal wavelength for free-space systems. We present an in-depth analysis of a daytime free-space quantum channel as a function of wavelength and atmospheric spatial coherence (Fried coherence length). We choose decoy-state quantum key distribution bit yield as a performance metric in order to reveal the ideal wavelength choice for an actual qubitbased protocol under realistic atmospheric conditions. Our analysis represents a rigorous framework to analyze requirements for spatial, spectral, and temporal filtering. These results will help guide the development of free-space quantum communication and networking systems. In particular, our results suggest that shorter wavelengths in the optical band should be considered for free-space quantum communication systems. Our results are also interpreted in the context of atmospheric compensation by higher-order adaptive optics.

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Adaptive-Optics-Enabled Quantum Communication: A Technique for Daytime Space-To-Earth Links

Cited by 33 publications

References 48 publications

Analysis of satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution with adaptive optics

Analysis of satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution with adaptive optics

Optical noise in a free-space quantum communications link from natural and nuclear disturbed environments*

Quantum Communication over Atmospheric Channels: A Framework for Optimizing Wavelength and Filtering

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