Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Assisted Free Space Optical Quantum Communications

This paper studies intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted free space optical (FSO) quantum communication systems. An IRS can relax the requirement of a line-of-sight (LoS) link between Alice and Bob for FSO quantum key distribution (QKD) applications. The IRS focuses the laser beam toward Bob by introducing a phase shift to the incoming incident beam from Alice. Both discrete variable QKD (DV-QKD) and continuous variable QKD (CV-QKD) protocols for IRS-assisted QKD systems are studied. For DV-QKD, we characterize the average quantum bit error rate (QBER) and the achievable secret key rate (SKR) under a log-normal fading turbulence model. For CV-QKD, we present the ultimate quantum information-theoretic bounds for the SKR and entanglement distribution rates. We also characterize the achievable SKR of a practical CV-QKD protocol implemented using Gaussian coherent states. Our results reveal that Alice and Bob can generate a quantum secure key even if the LoS link between them is blocked by utilizing the IRS. Furthermore, with a quadratic phase shift profile, the IRS-assisted link achieves a higher SKR as compared to the direct LoS link and a relay-assisted link for large transmission distances.