2024/11/25 by Sumit Chaudhary, Chaudhary, Sumit, Shahram Dehdashti +5
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Optical Network Technologies #Photonic and Optical Devices #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.16942
openalex publication_date 2024/11/25 · openalex created_date 2024/12/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Many quantum communication systems operate based on weak light pulses which by design are assumed to operate in isolation from regular data traffic. With the widespread availability and commercialization of these systems comes a need for seamless integration already at the physical layer. In particular for optical fiber links where wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is the dominant data transmission technique this results in the propagation of very weak quantum signals against a strong data signal background. With this work, we present a novel theoretical approach that studies the evolution of co-propagating quantum and classical signals that are launched using WDM. The important factors that contribute to crosstalk, such as the launch power of the classical signal and the separation between the two signals in terms of wavelength, are comprehensively analyzed. Interestingly, calculations show that only the first two nearest channels from the classical channel experience noticeable crosstalk whereas other distant channels have negligible crosstalk effect. This reflects the WDM technique is in principle robust in the integration of weak quantum links into classical data traffic.