Abstract
Extending the single photon transmission distance is a basic requirement for the implementation
of quantum communication on a global scale. In this work we report the single photon exchange
from a medium Earth orbit satellite (MEO) at more than 7000 km of slanted distance to the ground
station at the Matera Laser Ranging Observatory. The single photon transmitter was realized by
exploiting the corner cube retro-reflectors mounted on the LAGEOS-2 satellite. Long duration of
data collection is possible with such altitude, up to 43 minutes in a single passage. The mean
number of photons per pulse (µsat) has been limited to 1 for 200 seconds, resulting in an average
detection rate of 3.0 cps and a signal to noise ratio of 1.5. The feasibility of single photon exchange
from MEO satellites paves the way to tests of Quantum Mechanics in moving frames and to global
Quantum Information.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | arXiv |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |