Micius quantum experiments in space

By Chaoyang Lu, Yuan Cao, Cheng-Zhi Peng, Jian-Wei Pan. 2022

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Quantum theory has been successfully validated in numerous laboratory experiments. But would such a theory, which effectively describes the behavior of microscopic physical systems and its predicted phenomena such as quantum entanglement, still be applicable on large length scales? From a practical perspective, how can quantum key distribution (where the security of establishing secret keys between distant parties is ensured by the laws of quantum mechanics) be made technologically useful on a global scale? Owing to photon loss in optical fibers and terrestrial free space, the achievable distance using direct transmission of single photons has been limited to a few hundred kilometers. A promising route to testing quantum physics over long distances and in the relativistic regimes, and thus realizing flexible global-scale quantum networks, is via the use of satellites and space-based technologies, where a significant advantage is that the photon loss and turbulence predominantly occurs in the lower ∼ 10 km of the atmosphere, and most of the photons ’ transmission path in space is virtually in vacuum, with almost zero absorption and decoherence. Progress in free-space quantum experiments, with a focus on the fast-developing Micius satellite – based quantum communications, is reviewed. The perspective of space-ground integrated quantum networks and fundamental quantum optics experiments in space conceivable with satellites are discussed.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e6a0b79895dd078c1823392937d03bff1d7c8fbf