Influence of atmospheric turbulence on the propagation of quantum states of light using plane-wave encoding

Boyd, Robert W. and Rodenburg, Brandon and Mirhosseini, Mohammad and Barnett, Stephen M. (2011) Influence of atmospheric turbulence on the propagation of quantum states of light using plane-wave encoding. Optics Express, 19 (19). pp. 18310-18317. ISSN 1094-4087 (https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.018310)

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Abstract

We consider the possibility of performing quantum key distribution (QKD) by encoding information onto individual photons using plane-wave basis states. We compare the results of this calculation to those obtained by earlier workers, who considered encoding using OAM-carrying vortex modes of the field. We find theoretically that plane-wave encoding is less strongly influenced by atmospheric turbulence than is OAM encoding, with potentially important implications for free-space quantum key distribution.

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