Photonic Communications and Quantum Information Storage Capacities

William C. Lindsey

University of Southern California, Department of Electrical Engineering, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/opj.2013.32B032                

Abstract

This paper presents photonic communications and data storage capacitates for classical and quantum communications over a quantum channel. These capacities represent a generalization of Shannon’s classical channel capacity and coding theorem in two ways. First, it extends classical results for bit communication transport to all frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. Second, it extends the results to quantum bit (qubit) transport as well as a hybrid of classical and quantum communications. Nature’s limits on the rate at which classical and/or quantum information can be sent error-free over a quantum channel using classical and/or quantum error-correcting codes are presented as a function of the thermal background light level and Einstein zero-point energy. Graphical results are given as well as numerical results regarding communication rate limits using Planck’s natural frequency and time-interval units!

Keywords

Quantum Communications; Quantum Information Storage; Quantum Error-correcting Coding; Nature’s Photonic Limits

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	C. E. Shannon, “A Mathematical Theory of Communications,” Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 27, 1948, pp. 379-423.
[2]	W. C. Lindsey, “On Quantum Information Storage Capacity,” submitted for publication IEEE Transations, 2012
[3]	W. C. Lindsey, “Photonic Communications and Quantum Information, Storage Capacities,” submitted for publication IEEE Transations, 2013.