2021/03/11 by Davide Bacco, Nicola Biagi, Bacco, Davide +13 · 2 citations
Engineering · Computer Science · #Optical Network Technologies #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Advanced Optical Network Technologies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2103.06849
Multicore fibers are expected to be a game-changer in the coming decades\nthanks to their intrinsic properties, allowing a larger transmission bandwidth\nand a lower footprint in optical communications. In addition, multicore fibers\nhave recently been explored for quantum communication, attesting their\nuniqueness in transporting high-dimensional quantum states. However,\ninvestigations and experiments reported in literature have been carried out in\nresearch laboratories, typically making use of short fiber links in controlled\nenvironments. Thus, the possibility of using long distance multicore fibers for\nquantum applications is still to be proven. We here characterize for the first\ntime, in terms of phase stability, multiple strands of a 4-core multicore fiber\ninstalled underground in the city of L'Aquila, with an overall fiber length up\nto about 25 km. In this preliminary study, we investigate the possibility of\nusing such an infrastructure to implement quantum-enhanced schemes, such as\nhigh-dimensional quantum key distribution, quantum-based environmental sensors,\nand more in general quantum communication protocols.\n