Coplanar Antenna Design for Microwave Entangled Signals Propagating in Open Air

Quantum 6, 783 (2022).

https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2022-08-23-783

Open-air microwave quantum communication and metrology protocols must be able to transfer quantum resources from a cryostat, where they are created, to an environment dominated by thermal noise. Indeed, the states carrying such quantum resources are generated in a cryostat characterized by a temperature $T_text{in} simeq 50 $ mK and an intrinsic impedance $Z_text{in} = 50 , Omega$. Then, an antenna-like device is required to transfer them with minimal losses into open air, characterized by an intrinsic impedance of $Z_text{out} = 377 , Omega$ and a temperature $T_text{out} simeq 300$ K. This device accomplishes a smooth impedance matching between the cryostat and the open air. Here, we study the transmission of two-mode squeezed thermal states, developing a technique to design the optimal shape of a coplanar antenna to preserve the entanglement. Based on a numerical optimization procedure, we find the optimal shape of the impedance, and we propose a functional ansatz to qualitatively describe this shape. Additionally, this study reveals that the reflectivity of the antenna is very sensitive to this shape, so that small changes dramatically affect the outcoming entanglement, which could have been a limitation in previous experiments employing commercial antennae. This work is relevant in the fields of microwave quantum sensing and quantum metrology with special application to the development of the quantum radar, as well as any open-air microwave quantum communication protocol.