Abstract

Transmitting a beam through the atmosphere over long distances can be a challenging problem. Factors from the channel, such as atmospheric turbulence causing beam wander and distortions to the wavefront, or the optical design can change the loss induced in the channel. This work simulates a quantum key distribution system implementing the BB84 protocol with entangled photons operating over a 30 km maritime channel using one, four, and nine spatial modes. For the cases of multiple spatial modes, atmospheric turbulence increases the channel cross talk, resulting in an increase in the noise for each channel. To compensate for distortions in the wavefront, adaptive optics at the transmitter or receiver are used to pre- or post-correct the wavefront.

© 2018 Optical Society of America

Engineering trade studies for a quantum key distribution system over a 30  km free-space maritime channel

John Gariano, Mark Neifeld, and Ivan Djordjevic
Appl. Opt. 56(3) 543-557 (2017)

Multiple spatial modes based QKD over marine free-space optical channels in the presence of atmospheric turbulence

Xiaole Sun, Ivan B. Djordjevic, and Mark A. Neifeld
Opt. Express 24(24) 27663-27673 (2016)

Stabilization of transmittance fluctuations caused by beam wandering in continuous-variable quantum communication over free-space atmospheric channels

Vladyslav C. Usenko, Christian Peuntinger, Bettina Heim, Kevin Günthner, Ivan Derkach, Dominique Elser, Christoph Marquardt, Radim Filip, and Gerd Leuchs
Opt. Express 26(24) 31106-31115 (2018)

Coherent free space optics communications over the maritime atmosphere with use of adaptive optics for beam wavefront correction

Ming Li and Milorad Cvijetic
Appl. Opt. 54(6) 1453-1462 (2015)

Performance analysis of decoy state quantum key distribution over underwater turbulence channels

Amir Hossein Fahim Raouf, Majid Safari, and Murat Uysal
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 39(6) 1470-1478 (2022)