One-photon communication in atomic media

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the limits of single-photon transmission through atomic media, establishing a fidelity-based performance bound that applies across various channel types and media conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a fidelity-based framework to quantify information loss in single-photon atomic media and derives a universal performance bound.

Findings

Normalized fidelity decreases monotonically with coupling strength

Performance bounds are applicable to multiple channel types

Results hold for both deterministic and random media

Abstract

We consider the problem of single-photon transmission through an atomic medium, using quantum channel fidelity to describe the resulting information loss. We find that the normalized fidelity decreases monotonically with coupling strength, establishing a performance bound for quantum communication through such media. Our results hold for several channel types and for deterministic and random media.