Vol. 46, Issue 3, pp. 335-345 (2016)

Abstract

Polarization properties of Gaussian–Schell model quantization field propagating through the Kolmogorov turbulence of a marine-atmosphere channel are studied based on the degree of quantum polarization. The effective photon annihilation and creation operators of Gaussian–Schell model quantization field propagation in a marine-atmosphere are developed by making use of the extended Huygens–Fresnel integral of quantum field. The effects of the outer scale on the degree of polarization can be neglected. As the source transverse coherent width, the number of received photons, the inner scale of turbulent eddies, and the source transverse radius decrease or the refractive index structure parameter increases, the degree of polarization decreases. In theory, we find that the polarization fade of marine-atmosphere turbulence channels is larger than that of terrene-atmosphere turbulence channels under same transport parameters and the channel with a stronger turbulence strength will possess a larger detection area of a polarization signal, which have potentially important implications for free-space quantum key distribution.