Adaptive Optics Enabled Entanglement Distribution Over Atmospheric Turbulence Channels

Entanglement is key quantum information processing feature enabling quantum communication, networking, and sensing [1]. Unfortunately, long-distance quantum communication is affected by the photon loss, given that quantum signals cannot be amplified. As an alternative, free-space optical (FSO) links can be used instead for entanglement distribution. However, the FSO links are severely affected by atmospheric turbulence effects, in addition to scattering effects. In this paper, we demonstrate that adaptive optics [2] is a useful tool to improve fidelity of entanglement when entangled states are distributed over turbulent FSO links. We present results from our FSO communication experiment where we generated entangled photons pairs, launched them into free-space, and later collected them for coincidence count measurement. We demonstrate that adaptive optics can be used to make improvements in coincidence counts.