Twisted light transmission over 143 km #MMPMID27856744
Krenn M; Handsteiner J; Fink M; Fickler R; Ursin R; Malik M; Zeilinger A
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016[Nov]; 113 (48): 13648-53 PMID27856744show ga
Light is the main carrier of information. Its spatial mode allows the encoding of more than 1 bit per photon, and thus can increase the information capacity. For communication purposes, these modes need to be transmitted over large distances. Nowadays, fiber-based solutions are in their infancy, which renders free-space transmission the only possibility. We present an experiment where we investigate the behavior of the spatial modes after a distance of 143 km. With the help of an artificial neural network, we distinguished different mode superpositions up to the third order with more than 80% accuracy. Our results indicate that with state-of-the-art adaptive optics systems, both classical communication and entanglement transmission is feasible over distances of more than 100 km.