Polarization Recovery and Auto-Compensation in Quantum Key Distribution Network

摘要

A Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) network can allow multi-user communication via secure key. Moreover, by actively switching communication nodes, one can achieve high key transmission rate for the selected nodes. However, the polarization properties of different fiber path are different and these properties also randomly drift over time. Therefore, polarization recovery after the switching and auto-compensation during key transmission are critical for the QKD network. In this work, we use programmable polarization controllers to implement polarization recovery and auto-compensation in the QKD network. We will also discuss its time limitation and future improvement.