Darwin -— an experimental astronomy mission to search for extrasolar planets

As a response to ESA call for mission concepts for its Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 plan, we propose a mission called Darwin. Its primary goal is the study of terrestrial extrasolar planets and the search for life on them. In this paper, we describe different characteristics of the instrument

Orbital angular momentum of photons and the entanglement of Laguerre-Gaussian modes

The identification of orbital angular momentum (OAM) as a fundamental property of a beam of light nearly twenty-five years ago has led to an extensive body of research around this topic. The possibility that single photons can carry OAM has made this degree of freedom an ideal candidate for the investigation of complex quantum phenomena and their applications. Research in this direction has ranged from experiments on complex forms of quantum entanglement to the interaction between light and quantum states of matter. Furthermore, the use of OAM in quantum information has generated a lot of excitement, as it allows for encoding large amounts of information on a single photon. Here we explain the intuition that led to the first quantum experiment with OAM fifteen years ago. We continue by reviewing some key experiments investigating fundamental questions on photonic OAM and the first steps into applying these properties in novel quantum protocols. In the end, we identify several interesting open questions that could form the subject of future investigations with OAM.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures; close to accepted versio

A Short Wavelength GigaHertz Clocked Fiber-Optic Quantum Key Distribution System

A quantum key distribution system has been developed, using standard telecommunications optical fiber, which is capable of operating at clock rates of greater than 1 GHz. The quantum key distribution system implements a polarization encoded version of the B92 protocol. The system employs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with emission wavelengths of 850 nm as weak coherent light sources, and silicon single photon avalanche diodes as the single photon detectors. A distributed feedback laser of emission wavelength 1.3 micro-metres, and a linear gain germanium avalanche photodiode was used to optically synchronize individual photons over the standard telecommunications fiber. The quantum key distribution system exhibited a quantum bit error rate of 1.4%, and an estimated net bit rate greater than 100,000 bits-per-second for a 4.2 km transmission range. For a 10 km fiber range a quantum bit error rate of 2.1%, and estimated net bit rate of greater than 7,000 bits-per-second was achieved.Comment: Pre-press versio

Programmable multiport optical circuits in opaque scattering materials

We propose and experimentally verify a method to program the effective transmission matrix of general multiport linear optical circuits in random multiple-scattering materials by phase modulation of incident wavefronts. We demonstrate the power of our method by programming linear optical circuits in white paint layers with 2 inputs and 2 outputs, and 2 inputs and 3 outputs. Using interferometric techniques we verify our ability to program any desired phase relation between the outputs. The method works in a deterministic manner and can be directly applied to existing wavefront-shaping setups without the need of measuring a transmission matrix or to rely on sensitive interference measurements.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Photon temporal modes: a complete framework for quantum information science

Field-orthogonal temporal modes of photonic quantum states provide a new framework for quantum information science (QIS). They intrinsically span a high-dimensional Hilbert space and lend themselves to integration into existing single-mode fiber communication networks. We show that the three main requirements to construct a valid framework for QIS -- the controlled generation of resource states, the targeted and highly efficient manipulation of temporal modes and their efficient detection -- can be fulfilled with current technology. We suggest implementations of diverse QIS applications based on this complete set of building blocks.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure

Analysis of detector performance in a gigahertz clock rate quantum key distribution system

We present a detailed analysis of a gigahertz clock rate environmentally robust phase-encoded quantum key distribution (QKD) system utilizing several different single-photon detectors, including the first implementation of an experimental resonant cavity thin-junction silicon single-photon avalanche diode. The system operates at a wavelength of 850 nm using standard telecommunications optical fibre. A general-purpose theoretical model for the performance of QKD systems is presented with reference to these experimental results before predictions are made about realistic detector developments in this system. We discuss, with reference to the theoretical model, how detector operating parameters can be further optimized to maximize key exchange rates