Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

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SYLV: Symposium Lokalisierung und Verschränkung in photoinduzierten Prozessen

SYLV 2: SYLV II

SYLV 2.5: Invited Talk

Monday, March 2, 2009, 18:30–19:00, VMP 8 HS

Space-QUEST: Experiments with quantum entanglement in space — •Rupert Ursin, Thomas Jennewein, and Anton Zeilinger — Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Austria

Quantum communications is becoming a field of increasingly broad technological interest. It has matured from a purely fundamental quantum physics research area to an applied science with huge potential economic impact. The most promising application, quantum cryptography, has been demonstrated in various scenarios, and initial systems are already commercially available. A fascinating technological challenge is the establishment of a quantum communication network, which eventually allows quantum communication on a global scale. Most existing implementations of quantum communication schemes are based on the transmission and detection of single photons or entangled photon pairs. With present technology, the distance that can be bridged is limited, basically by attenuation and detection noise, to some hundred kilometers in fiber systems. These limitations could be overcome by the use of space and satellite technology. The European Space Agency (ESA) has supported a range of studies in the field of quantum physics and quantum information science in space for several years, and consequently a mission proposal Space-QUEST (Quantum Entanglement for Space Experiments) was submitted to the European Life and Physical Sciences in Space Program. This proposal envisions to perform space-to-ground quantum communication tests from the International Space Station (ISS). Here we present the proposed experiments in space as well as the design of a space based quantum communication payload.