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arXiv:1811.04113 · Physical Review A

Quantum-enhanced standoff detection using correlated photon pairs

Duncan G. England, Bhashyam Balaji, Benjamin Sussman

Published Feb 19, 2019• 139 citations
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Abstract

We investigate the use of correlated photon pair sources for the improved quantum-level detection of a target in the presence of a noise background. Photon pairs are generated by spontaneous four-wave mixing, one photon from each pair (the herald) is measured locally while the other (the signal) is sent to illuminate the target. Following diffuse reflection from the target, the signal photons are detected by a receiver and nonclassical timing correlations between the signal and herald are measured in the presence of a configurable background noise source. Quantum correlations from the photon pair source can be used to provide an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio when compared to a classical light source of the same intensity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.99.023828

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We investigate the use of correlated photon pair sources for the improved quantum-level detection of a target in the presence of a noise background. Photon pairs are generated by spontaneous four-wave mixing, one photon from each pair (the herald) is measured locally while the other (the signal) is sent to illuminate the target. Following diffuse reflection from the target, the signal photons are detected by a receiver and nonclassical timing correlations between the signal and herald are measured in the presence of a configurable background noise source. Quantum correlations from the photon pair source can be used to provide an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio when compared to a classical light source of the same intensity.
Abstract Imaging, detection and ranging of objects in the presence of significant background noise is a fundamental challenge in optical sensing. Overcoming the limitations imposed in conventional methods, quantum light sources show higher resistance against noise in a time-correlation-based quantum illumination. Here, we introduce the advantage of using not only time correlations but also polarization correlations in photon pairs in the detection of an object that is embedded in a noisy background. In this direction, a time- and polarization-correlated photon pair source using the spontaneous parametric down-conversion process is exploited. We found that the joint measurement of correlated pairs allows distinguishing the signal from the noise photons and that leads to an improved signal-to-noise ratio. Our comparative study revealed that using polarization correlations in addition to time correlations provides improved noise rejection. Furthermore, we show that polarization correlation allows undoing the detector limitation where high background often leads to detector saturation.
Imaging, detection and ranging of objects in the presence of significant background noise is a fundamental challenge in optical sensing. Overcoming the limitations imposed in conventional methods, quantum light sources show higher resistance against noise in a time correlation-based detection scheme. Here, we introduce the advantage of using not only time correlations, but also polarization correlations in photon pairs in the detection of an object that is embedded in a noisy background. In this direction, a time- and polarization-correlated photon-pair source using the spontaneous parametric down-conversion process is exploited. We found that the joint measurement of correlated pairs allows to distinguish the signal from the noise photons and that leads to an improved signal-to-noise ratio. Our comparative study revealed that using polarization correlations in addition to time correlations provides improved noise rejection.
In this work we investigate quantum-enhanced target detection in the presence of large background noise using multidimensional quantum correlations between photon pairs generated through spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Until now similar experiments have only utilized one of the photon pairs' many degrees of freedom such as temporal correlations and photon number correlations. Here, we utilized both temporal and spectral correlations of the photon pairs and achieved over an order of magnitude reduction to the background noise and in turn significant reduction to data acquisition time when compared to utilizing only temporal modes. We believe this work represents an important step in realizing a practical, real-time quantum-enhanced target detection system. The demonstrated technique will also be of importance in many other quantum sensing applications and quantum communications.
In this work we investigate quantum-enhanced target detection in the presence of large background noise using multidimensional quantum correlations between photon pairs generated through spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Until now similar experiments have only utilized one of the photon pairs' many degrees of freedom such as temporal correlations and photon number correlations. Here, we utilized both temporal and spectral correlations of the photon pairs and achieved over an order of magnitude reduction to the background noise and in turn significant reduction to data acquisition time when compared to utilizing only temporal modes. We believe this work represents an important step in realizing a practical, real-time quantum-enhanced target detection system. The demonstrated technique will also be of importance in many other quantum sensing applications and quantum communications.
In the optical detection of distant objects, one can benefit from quantum light properties over those of classical light. Two-beam correlation-enhanced protocols can improve imaging or target detection even under strong background noise and in the low photon flux regime. We demonstrate that a partially reflecting jamming object introduces noise to these protocols, including quantum illumination. In contrast to background noise, the signal radiation reflected from the jammer is correlated with the corresponding idler beam. We analyze the means to mitigate this noise and introduce an indistinguishability parameter μ, showing how efficiently the jammer can be distinguished from the target. We use the quantum Chernoff bound and the density matrix orthogonalization procedure to separate the contributions from the target, the background, and the jammer. We illustrate our findings with an experiment using optical entangled photon pairs at 800 nm. Our results can be applied to the design of target detection protocols and advanced imaging techniques.
In this article, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally how one can exploit correlations generated in monolithic semiconductor quantum light sources to enhance the performance of optical target detection. A prototype target detection protocol, the quantum time-correlation (QTC) detection protocol, with spontaneous parametric down-converted photon-pair sources, is discussed. The QTC protocol only requires time-resolved photon-counting detection, which is phase-insensitive and therefore suitable for optical target detection. As a comparison to the QTC detection protocol, we also consider a classical phase-insensitive target detection protocol based on intensity detection. We formulated the target detection problem as a probe light transmission estimation problem, and we quantify the target detection performance with the Fisher information criterion and the receiver operation characteristic analysis. Unlike classical target detection and ranging protocols, the probe photons in our QTC detection protocol are completely indistinguishable from the background noise and therefore useful for covert ranging applications. Finally, our technological platform is highly scalable and tunable and thus amenable to large scale integration necessary for practical applications.