Atmospheric turbulence and orbital angular momentum of single photons for optical communication.
The effects of propagation through random aberrations on coherence for single-photon communication systems based on orbital angular momentum states are quantified. A rotational coherence function is derived which leads to scattering equations for azimuthal modes of different orbital angular momentum states. The effect on a single-photon communication system is quantified using the channel capacity. The work shows that the decoherence effect of atmospheric turbulence on such systems is important even for weak turbulence.
Paterson
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The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.