Decoherence of a One-Photon Packet in an Imperfect Optical Fiber

Abstract

The Liouville equation describing the time development of the density matrix of a single-photon packet propagating in an optical fiber is investigated. The Hamiltonian of the dynamic system and the relaxation operator depend on the phenomenological parameters: chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion, polarization mode loss, and differential group delay. The patterns of distortion of a quantum packet are compared to the laws known from classical representations.