An Extremely Low Power Quantum Optical Communication Link for Autonomous Robotic Explorers

[Abstract] In this paper a very low power optical communications system for miniature robots, as small as 1 cm 3 , is addressed. The communication system is a variant of photon counting communication s. Instead of counting individual photons the system only counts the arrival of time coincident sets of photons. Using sets of photons significantly decreases the bit error rate because they are highly identifiable in the presence of ambient light. An experiment demonstrating reliable communication over a distance of 70 meters using less than a billionth of a watt of radiated power is presented. The components used in this system were chosen so that they could in the future be integrated into a cubic centimeter device.