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arXiv · 1306.0672

Experimental Single-Photon Transmission from Satellite to Earth

Juan Yin·Yuan Cao·Shu-Bin Liu·Ge-Sheng Pan·Jin-Hong Wang·Tao Yang·Zhong-Ping Zhang·Fu-Min Yang·Yu-Ao Chen·Cheng-Zhi Peng·Jian-Wei Pan
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Abstract

Free-space quantum communication with satellites opens a promising avenue for global secure quantum network and large-scale test of quantum foundations. Recently, numerous experimental efforts have been carried out towards this ambitious goal. However, one essential step - transmitting single photons from the satellite to the ground with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at realistic environments - remains experimental challenging. Here, we report a direct experimental demonstration of the satellite-ground transmission of a quasi-single-photon source. In the experiment, single photons (~0.85 photon per pulse) are generated by reflecting weak laser pulses back to earth with a cube-corner retro-reflector on the satellite Champ, collected by a 600-mm diameter telescope at the ground station, and finally detected by single-photon counting modules (SPCMs) after 400-km free-space link transmission. With the help of high accuracy time synchronization, narrow receiver field-of-view (FOV) and high-repetition-rate pulses (76 MHz), a SNR of better than 16:1 is obtained, which is sufficient for a secure quantum key distribution. Our experimental results represent an important step towards satellite-ground quantum communication.

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Juan Yin, Yuan Cao, Shu-Bin Liu, Ge-Sheng Pan, Jin-Hong Wang, Tao Yang, Zhong-Ping Zhang, Fu-Min Yang, Yu-Ao Chen, Cheng-Zhi Peng, Jian-Wei Pan. 2013-06-04. Experimental Single-Photon Transmission from Satellite to Earth. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.21.020032

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