SEAQUE (Satellite Entanglement and Annealing Quantum Experiment)

Establishing quantum light systems in space is an essential step towards building a quantum network that would provide benefits such as connecting quantum nodes, providing secure communication, and improving distributed sensing. However, there are no American led initiatives for a quantum satellite to date. SEAQUE (Satellite Entanglement and Annealing QUantum Experiment) hopes to serve as the first American quantum satellite in orbit by utilizing the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock on the International Space Station. The source will use integrated optics, as opposed to a bulkier crystal system, to generate polarization-entangled photons. Bell inequalities and tomography’s will be measured to characterize the quality of entanglement while in orbit. The current flight source has a Bell inequality violation of 2.758 ± 0.006 along with a purity and fidelity of 0.984 ± 0.002 . Additionally, SEAQUE will combat radiation damage that occurs on single photon detectors in space through laser annealing. Whereas other quantum satellites will degrade over time, we hope to show that the self-healing quality of SEAQUE will extend its lifetime for over a year.