A feasibility study and the mission definition for a Quantum Key Distribution from a geostationary satellite have been successfully completed by a Spanish consortium led by HISPASAT under ARTES ESA funding. The system will be a hosted payload of a regular communication satellite mission. In this work, the conceptual optical design of the payload is presented. It includes the trade-off between an on-axis telescope with central obscuration and an off-axis unobscured telescope. Besides, the optical design of the transmission (i.e.: quantum signal and downlink beacon) and reception channels (i.e.: uplink beacon) are described and the critical subsystems identified. A polarization control system based on liquid-crystals, which avoids mechanisms, is used to correct the errors due to instrumental residual polarization, reference system rotation or long-term instability of the QKD source during operation.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.