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arXiv:1303.4304 · Physical Review Letters

Experimental Realization of Quantum Illumination

E. D. Lopaeva, Ivano Ruo Berchera, Ivo Pietro Degiovanni, S. Olivares, G. Brida, Marco Genovese

Published Apr 10, 2013• 404 citations
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Abstract

We present the first experimental realization of the quantum illumination protocol proposed by Lloyd [Science 321, 1463 (2008)] and S. Tan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 253601 (2008)], achieved in a simple feasible experimental scheme based on photon-number correlations. A main achievement of our result is the demonstration of a strong robustness of the quantum protocol to noise and losses that challenges some widespread wisdom about quantum technologies.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.110.153603

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Abstract: We report the first experimental demonstration of an entanglement-based secure communication protocol that is resilient to entanglement-breaking loss and noise on the communication channel. Passive eavesdropping immunity is demonstrated in bit-error rate measurements and Alice’s information advantage over Eve is estimated. Entanglement is a key ingredient to many quantum information applications, but quantum decoherence arising from loss and noise easily destroys entanglement. Quantum illumination (QI) [1]–[3] is a novel concept of utilizing entanglement in an entanglement-breaking lossy and noisy environment to achieve a substantial performance benefit. First proposed for enhancing the signalto-noise ratio for detecting a weakly-reflecting target in the presence of strong background noise [1], quantum illumination was later shown, theoretically, to enable high data-rate classical communication that is immune to passive eavesdropping [3]. In this work we report the first experimental demonstration of the QI communication protocol [4], showing a strong performance benefit of using bosonic entanglement over an entanglement-breaking channel and QI’s passive-eavesdropping immunity. Quantum illumination achieves a substantial benefit from its initial entanglement, despite the roundtrip lossy, noisy propagation channel’s having left the retained and returned light

•Jan 1, 2013•0 citations
We present the first experimental realization of the quantum illumination protocol proposed by Lloyd [Science 321, 1463 (2008)] and S. Tan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 253601 (2008)], achieved in a simple feasible experimental scheme based on photon-number correlations. A main achievement of our result is the demonstration of a strong robustness of the quantum protocol to noise and losses that challenges some widespread wisdom about quantum technologies.
Quantum imaging utilises the quantum states of light to surpass the classical limits of imaging. However, in the real-world quantum imaging schemes are subject to environmental noise and losses that destroy entanglement. Quantum illumination protocols use the spatial correlations between entangled photon-pairs to enable performance enhancements despite the presence of environmental noise and losses. We demonstrate the implementation of such a protocol whose ability to distinguish a quantum signal from environmental noise improves relative to the corresponding direct imaging case as the levels of noise and loss increase. Such quantum illumination protocols should find applications in low-light imaging and quantum LIDAR schemes.
Quantum illumination is one of the application protocols of This protocol uses entanglement for target detection. The protocol was first proposed by Lloyd, and its performance was later studied by Tan et al. In a lossy environment, they considered a Gaussian state in the presence of thermal noise. Entanglement with nonorthogonal states, such as coherent states, produces These states have been shown to be capable of perfect entanglement. In this paper, we consider quantum illumination using quasi-Bell states, and compute the minimum error probability of quantum illumination under these states.
Abstract: We report the first experimental demonstration of an entanglement-based secure communication protocol that is resilient to entanglement-breaking loss and noise on the communication channel. Passive eavesdropping immunity is demonstrated in bit-error rate measurements and Alice’s information advantage over Eve is estimated. Entanglement is a key ingredient to many quantum information applications, but quantum decoherence arising from loss and noise easily destroys entanglement. Quantum illumination (QI) [1]–[3] is a novel concept of utilizing entanglement in an entanglement-breaking lossy and noisy environment to achieve a substantial performance benefit. First proposed for enhancing the signalto-noise ratio for detecting a weakly-reflecting target in the presence of strong background noise [1], quantum illumination was later shown, theoretically, to enable high data-rate classical communication that is immune to passive eavesdropping [3]. In this work we report the first experimental demonstration of the QI communication protocol [4], showing a strong performance benefit of using bosonic entanglement over an entanglement-breaking channel and QI’s passive-eavesdropping immunity. Quantum illumination achieves a substantial benefit from its initial entanglement, despite the roundtrip lossy, noisy propagation channel’s having left the retained and returned light