Deterministic State-of-Polarization Generation for Polarization-Encoded Optical Communications

Abstract

This work introduces a theoretical model for electronic polarization controllers (EPCs) based on fiber squeezing. First, a method to calculate the EPC configuration in order to transform between any two states of polarization (SOP) is presented. In a second stage, a technique to deterministically generate four SOPs in polarization-encoded quantum communication systems is proposed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is experimentally assessed through the generation of two pairs of orthogonal SOPs. Results show that this polarization generation process is intrinsically stable, which evidences its potential for practical implementations of polarization-encoding quantum protocols, e.g. BB84 or B92 quantum key distribution protocols.