Note about Passive Continuous Variable Quantum Key Distribution over Turbulent Atmospheric Channel

Abstract

Continuous variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) has been implemented over the atmospheric channels over free space. However, atmospheric turbulence weakens the quality of the transmitting quantum signals and hence decreases the secret key rate of the system. Here, we suggest an atmospheric turbulence channel model that involves atmospheric turbulence bubbles and demonstrates the implementation feasibility of passive CVQKD with spectrum resources in the terahertz band over the atmospheric turbulence channel. We achieve the channel transmittance characterized by the refractive index and the wavefront distortions. Moreover, an adaptive optics (AO) unit is used for performance improvement while considering the effect of the thermal noise and excess noise on the atmospheric turbulence bubble-modeled channel. Numerical simulations show that the AO-involved detection scheme can result in reductions in excess noise when being faced with the floating clouds and mist in atmospheric turbulence, which results in performance improvements in terms of secret key rate, which confirms the utility of the high-rate and long-distance CVQKD in terahertz (THz) for practical implementations.

Keywords

• quantum key distribution
• adaptive optics
• atmospheric turbulence
• quantum communications