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The integration of terrestrial- and satellite-based quantum key distribution (QKD) experiments has markedly advanced global-scale quantum networks, showcasing the growing maturity of quantum technologies. Notably, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as relay nodes has emerged as a promising method to overcome the inherent limitations of fiber-based and low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite connections. This paper introduces a protocol for measurement-device-independent QKD (MDI-QKD) using photon orbital angular momentum (OAM) encoding, with UAVs as relay platforms. Leveraging UAV mobility, the protocol establishes a secure and efficient link, mitigating threats from untrusted UAVs. Photon OAM encoding addresses reference frame alignment issues exacerbated by UAV jitter. A comprehensive analysis of atmospheric turbulence, state-dependent diffraction (SDD), weather visibility, and pointing errors on free-space OAM-state transmission systems was conducted. This analysis elucidates the relationship between the key generation rate and propagation distance for the proposed protocol. Results indicate that considering SDD significantly decreases the key rate, halving previous data results. Furthermore, the study identifies a maximum channel loss capacity of 26 dB for the UAV relay platform. This result is pivotal in setting realistic parameters for the deployment of UAV-based quantum communications and lays the foundation for practical implementation strategies in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High dimensional quantum entanglement based on orbital angular momentum (OAM) can provide infinite freedom theoretically, providing a significant improvement on the capacity of the quantum communication. However, the vortex beam that carries OAM signal can be easily distorted by atmospheric turbulence and can degrade the performance of the system. Consequently, for the operation, administration and maintenance of quantum system, an accurate digital twin model of the turbulent channel is necessary. Digital twin model is a mathematical model which can reflect the influence of atmospheric channel on quantum system by theoretical analysis. Nevertheless, it is challenging to achieve for the complex mechanism of atmospheric turbulence. To address this problem, deep learning (DL) techniques have been studied recently. Whereas, for the training of DL, a massive number of labeled samples are needed, i.e., the actual free-space channel, which are hard to be obtained in practical systems. The pool generalization also hinders the use of these DL-based algorithms in practice. To overcome the above challenges, we propose a self-supervised DL algorithm, which does not need any labeled samples in advance, meaning the training of the algorithm can be restarted any time once the environment changes. Compared with previous studies, the proposed algorithm can better suite as the digital twin of the turbulent channel. To verify the performance of the proposed algorithm, we perform extensive verification, whose results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]