Single-photon acquisition probability for free-space quantum key distribution
Guangyu Zhang, Jing Ma, Liying Tan, Siyuan Yu, Qiqi Han, Yunliang Chen · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2005
Two theoretical models of single-photon acquisition probability based on the fundamental-mode Gaussian beam are established for free-space quantum key distribution and are compared in theory and simulation. The parameters that influence the single-photon acquisition probability are the transmitter's tracking-pointing error, the far-field divergence angle, the link distance between the transmitter and receiver and the receiver's antenna aperture. The single-photon acquisition probability is analyzed in the numerical simulation and its orders of magnitude are given for the ground-to-ground, satellite-to-ground and satellite-to-satellite links. The results of the theoretical analysis and the numerical simulation show that it is feasible to acquire single-photon for the satellite-to-ground and satellite-to-satellite quantum key distribution.