Reducing detection noise of a photon pair in a dispersive medium by controlling its spectral entanglement

TL;DR

This paper investigates how controlling the spectral entanglement of photon pairs can mitigate chromatic dispersion effects in fiber-optic quantum communication, thereby reducing detection noise and enhancing security distances.

Contribution

It demonstrates that spectral correlation manipulation of photon pairs can decrease detection noise caused by dispersion, improving quantum key distribution security over longer distances.

Findings

Spectral entanglement control reduces detection noise in dispersive fibers.

Manipulating spectral correlations extends secure quantum communication distances.

Results applicable to practical quantum key distribution setups.

Abstract

Chromatic dispersion is one of the main limitations to the security of quantum communication protocols that rely on the transmission of single photons in single mode fibers. This phenomenon forces the trusted parties to define longer detection windows to avoid losing signal photons and increases the amount of detection noise that is being registered. In this work, we analyze the effects of chromatic dispersion on a photon pair generated via spontaneous parametric down-conversion and propagating in standard telecommunication fibers. We also present the possibility of reducing the detection noise by manipulating the spectral correlation of the pair. As an example, we show that our results can be used to increase the maximal security distance of a discrete-variable quantum key distribution scheme in which the photon source is located between the legitimate participants of the protocol.