title: Multiple spatial modes based QKD over marine free-space optical channels in the presence of atmospheric turbulence.
abstract: We investigate a multiple spatial modes based quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme that employs multiple independent parallel beams through a marine free-space optical channel over open ocean. This approach provides the potential to increase secret key rate (SKR) linearly with the number of channels. To improve the SKR performance, we describe a back-propagation mode (BPM) method to mitigate the atmospheric turbulence effects. Our simulation results indicate that the secret key rate can be improved significantly by employing the proposed BPM-based multi-channel QKD scheme.
authors.forename: Xiaole
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Ivan B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Djordjevic
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Neifeld