Experimental Single-Photon Transmission from Satellite to Earth
| Autor: | Tao Yang, Shubin Liu, Jinhong Wang, Fu-Min Yang, Ge-Sheng Pan, Yuan Cao, Zhong-Ping Zhang, Yu-Ao Chen, Cheng-Zhi Peng, Juan Yin, Jian-Wei Pan |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Quantum network Quantum Physics Photon business.industry FOS: Physical sciences Quantum key distribution 01 natural sciences Atomic and Molecular Physics and Optics law.invention 010309 optics Telescope Optics Transmission (telecommunications) law 0103 physical sciences Satellite 010306 general physics business Quantum information science Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Quantum |
| Popis: | Free-space quantum communication with satellites opens a promising avenue for global secure quantum network and large-scale test of quantum foundations. Recently, numerous experimental efforts have been carried out towards this ambitious goal. However, one essential step - transmitting single photons from the satellite to the ground with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at realistic environments - remains experimental challenging. Here, we report a direct experimental demonstration of the satellite-ground transmission of a quasi-single-photon source. In the experiment, single photons (~0.85 photon per pulse) are generated by reflecting weak laser pulses back to earth with a cube-corner retro-reflector on the satellite Champ, collected by a 600-mm diameter telescope at the ground station, and finally detected by single-photon counting modules (SPCMs) after 400-km free-space link transmission. With the help of high accuracy time synchronization, narrow receiver field-of-view (FOV) and high-repetition-rate pulses (76 MHz), a SNR of better than 16:1 is obtained, which is sufficient for a secure quantum key distribution. Our experimental results represent an important step towards satellite-ground quantum communication. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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