The photon pair source that survived a rocket explosion

Zhongkan, Tang; Chandrasekara, Rakhitha; Chuan, Tan Yue; Cheng, Cliff; Durak, Kadir; Alexander, L. M.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.1512.08834

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…The first step is to address the technical challenges of assembling a photon pair source that satisfies the restrictions imposed by very small spacecraft. Though the nanosatellite platform imposes strict size, weight and power constraints on payloads, this is used to drive the development of compact and rugged photon pair systems [25] that will also be useful for ground-based applications of entangled photons.…”

Section: A New Pathway To Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…One copy successfully underwent a full qualification test process (involving vibration, and thermal-vaccuum conditions) to validate the robustness of the design. The second copy was integrated into the spacecraft which subsequently passed the acceptance test regime set by the launch vehicle provider [25]. Performance data of the flight copy whilst integrated into the spacecraft, to act as a comparative baseline, was taken before shipment of the spacecraft to the launch site.…”

Section: A Small Photon Pair Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

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Generation and analysis of correlated pairs of photons on board a nanosatellite

Tang,

Chandrasekara,

Tan

et al. 2016

Preprint

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Satellites carrying sources of entangled photons could establish a global quantum network, enabling private encryption keys between any two points on Earth. Despite numerous proposals, demonstration of space-based quantum systems has been limited due to the cost of traditional satellites. We are using very small spacecraft to accelerate progress. We report the in-orbit operation of a photon pair source aboard a 1.65 kg nanosatellite and demonstrate pair generation and polarization correlation under space conditions. The in-orbit photon correlations exhibit a contrast of 97 ± 2%, matching ground-based tests. This pathfinding mission overcomes the challenge of demonstrating in-orbit performance for the components of future entangled photon experiments. Ongoing operation establishes the in-orbit lifetime of these critical components. More generally, this demonstrates the ability for nanosatellites to enable faster progress in space-based research.

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Section: A New Pathway To Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Small Photon Pair Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%