Distribution of Telecom Entangled Photons through a 7.7 km Antiresonant Hollow-Core Fiber

Abstract

State of the art classical and quantum communication rely on standard optical fibers with solid cores to transmit light over long distances. However, recent advances have led to the emergence of antiresonant hollow-core optical fibers (AR-HCFs), which due to the novel fiber geometry, show remarkable optical guiding properties, which are not as limited by the material properties as solid-core fibers. In this paper, we explore the transmission of entangled photons through a novel 7.7 km AR-HCF in a laboratory environment at 1550 nm, presenting the first successful demonstration of entanglement distribution via a long AR-HCF. In addition to showing these novel fibers are compatible with long distance quantum communication, we highlight the low latency and low chromatic dispersion intrinsic to AR-HCF, which can increase the secure key rate in time-bin based quantum key distribution protocols.