Pump-shaping of non-collinear and non-degenerate entangled photons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates wavefront shaping techniques to compensate for atmospheric scattering effects on non-collinear, non-degenerate entangled photons, enhancing free-space quantum communication.

Contribution

It introduces wavefront shaping as a method to improve quantum correlations in entangled photons affected by atmospheric turbulence.

Findings

Successful compensation of scattering effects on entangled photons

Enhanced quantum correlation preservation in turbulent conditions

Applicability to protocols with large bandwidth and emission angles

Abstract

Free-space quantum key distribution is gaining increasing interest as a leading platform for long range quantum communication. However, the sensitivity of quantum correlations to scattering induced by turbulent atmospheric links limits the performance of such systems. Recently, methods for compensating the scattering of entangled photons have been demonstrated, allowing for real-time optimization of their quantum correlations. In this Letter, we demonstrate the use of wavefront shaping for compensating the scattering of non-collinear and non-degenerate entangled photons. These results demonstrate the applicability of wavefront shaping schemes for protocols utilizing the large bandwidth and emission angle of the entangled photons.