Abstract

We have developed a" digital twin" of the photon entanglement generation process to model the degradation of quantum entangled states produced via spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) when transmitted through lossy and noisy optical channels. These two-mode entangled states can exhibit entanglement in photon number, polarization, and spectral-temporal modes, making them valuable resources for quantum communication and information processing. Using a density matrix formalism, we perform numerical simulations to model the interaction of each mode with its environment, incorporating the effects of photon loss, incoherent noise processes, and intermodal correlations between polarization and frequency degrees of freedom. Purity and fidelity are key metrics used to quantify the mixedness and coherence of the transmitted state. The simulation results quantify the decoherence as noise and loss increase, highlighting the vulnerability of entanglement to environmental disturbances and the compounding impact of mode-dependent quantum correlations. This study provides insight into the performance limits of SPDC-based entangled photon sources and offers guidance for optimizing quantum systems operating under realistic conditions. The simulation platform serves as a predictive tool, enabling future integration with experimental control systems and benchmarking against measured entangled photon characteristics such as Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and polarization correlation visibility.

Date

2025

Authors

Alireza Alipour, Jonathan Habif

Journal

2025 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE)

Volume

1

Pages

1455-1465

Publisher

IEEE