The evolution of OAM entanglement between two qutrits in turbulence

摘要

The use of Higher-dimensional entangled systems have been proved to significantly improve many quantum information tasks. For instance, it has been shown that the use of higher-dimensional entangled systems provides a higher information capacity and an increased security in quantum cryptography. The orbital angular momentum (OAM) state of light is a potential candidate for the implementation of higher-dimensional entangled systems and has thus been considered for free-space quantum communication. However, atmospheric turbulence severely affects the OAM state of photons. In this work, we study the evolution of the OAM entanglement between two qutrits (three-dimensional quantum systems) in atmospheric turbulence both numerically and experimentally. The qutrits are photons entangled in their orbital angular momentum (OAM) states generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion. We propagate one of the photons through turbulence while leaving the other undisturbed. To compare our results with previous work, we simulate the turbulent atmosphere with a single phase screen based on the Kolmogorov theory of turbulence and we use the tangle to quantify the amount of entanglement between the two qutrits. We compare our results with the evolution of OAM entanglement between two qubits.