BUILDING ENTANGLED PHOTON PAIR SOURCES FOR QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION WITH NANO-SATELLITES

Abstract

Quantum entanglement is the reason for many quantum applications to result superior when compared to their classical counterparts. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is one of the applications that can benefit from this remarkable property. Aiming for a global QKD network, enabling the space segment in order to distribute entanglement over large distances, is a crucial task. The aim of this thesis is to accelerate the development of entangled photon sources capable of QKD-operation from space. The source design is driven by the size, weight and power requirements typically encountered in nano-satellites. To this end, the main results of this thesis are: the design of a novel entangled photon source; the optimization of the entangled photon collection; the optimization of the pump beam used in the entangled photon generation; and the development of a quantum source as a satellite payload for the space mission SpooQy-1.