Characterization of a turbulent atmosphere simulator for qubits testbed

We developed a laboratory-scale testbed to simulate atmospheric turbulence effects and to investigate the role of turbulence on the quantum information content of a free-space qubit transport. We report the development, characterization, and calibration of the testbed for the statistical parameters of the turbulence employing two phase screens, which produced weak to strong turbulence replicating long distances in the atmosphere for single photon propagation. By taking a long-exposure image of the point-spread function of a pinhole and analyzing the associated modulation transfer function, we measured a <i>D</i>/<i>r</i>₀ ranging from 1.04 to 23.27. Using irradiance fluctuations, we measured an on-axis scintillation index ranging from 0.25 to 2.02. The TASQ was designed to integrate a biphoton source, along with a single photon detection module to test the effect of turbulence on qubit transport. The calibrated setup will provide critical data for field experiments involving long-distance quantum networks.