Single-mode fiber coupling with a M-SPGD algorithm for long-range quantum communications

Abstract

Satellite-based quantum communication is a promising approach for realizing global-scale quantum networks. For free-space quantum channel, single-mode fiber coupling is particularly important for improving signal-to-noise ratio of daylight quantum key distribution (QKD) and compatibility with standard fiber-based QKD. However, achieving a highly efficient and stable single-mode coupling efficiency under strong atmospheric turbulence remains experimentally challenging. Here, we develop a single-mode receiver with an adaptive optics (AO) system based on a modal version of the stochastic parallel gradient descent (M-SPGD) algorithm and test its performance over an 8 km urban terrestrial free-space channel. Under strong atmospheric turbulence, the M-SPGD AO system obtains an improvement of about 3.7 dB in the single-mode fiber coupling efficiency and a significant suppression of fluctuation, which can find its applications in free-space long-range quantum communications.

11 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Experimental quantum teleportation
• Satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution
• Ground-to-satellite quantum teleportation
• Quantum teleportation and entanglement distribution over 100-kilometre free-space channels
• Satellite-to-ground quantum communication using a 50-kg-class micro-satellite
• Detection of phase singularities with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor
• Stochastic parallel gradient descent optimization based on decoupling of the software and hardware