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arXiv:2004.06765 · IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems

Target Detection Aided by Quantum Temporal Correlations: Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Validation

Han Liu, Bhashyam Balaji, Amr Saher Helmy

Published Feb 14, 2020• 20 citations
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Abstract

The detection of objects in the presence of significant background noise is a problem of fundamental interest in sensing. In this work, we theoretically analyze a prototype target detection protocol, the quantum temporal correlation (QTC) detection protocol, which is implemented in this work utilizing spontaneous parametric down-converted photon-pair sources. The QTC detection 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 that is practical in the optical regime. We formulated the target detection problem as a total probe photon transmission estimation problem and obtain an analytical expression of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. We carry out experiments using a semiconductor waveguide source, which we developed and previously reported. The experimental results agree very well with the theoretical prediction. In particular, we find that in a high-level environment noise and loss, the QTC detection protocol can achieve performance comparable to that of the classical protocol (that is practical in the optical regime) but with \(\simeq 57\) times lower detection time in terms of ROC curve metric. The performance of the QTC detection protocol experiment setup could be further improved with a higher transmission of the reference photon and better detector time uncertainty. Furthermore, the probe photons in the QTC detection protocol are completely indistinguishable from the background noise and therefore useful for covert ranging applications. Finally, our technological platform is highly scalable as well as tunable and thus amenable to large scale integration, which is necessary for practical applications.

DOI
10.1109/taes.2020.2974054

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The detection of objects in the presence of significant background noise is a problem of fundamental interest in sensing. In this work, we theoretically analyze a prototype target detection protocol, the quantum temporal correlation (QTC) detection protocol, which is implemented in this work utilizing spontaneous parametric down-converted photon-pair sources. The QTC detection 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 that is practical in the optical regime. We formulated the target detection problem as a total probe photon transmission estimation problem and obtain an analytical expression of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. We carry out experiments using a semiconductor waveguide source, which we developed and previously reported. The experimental results agree very well with the theoretical prediction. In particular, we find that in a high-level environment noise and loss, the QTC detection protocol can achieve performance comparable to that of the classical protocol (that is practical in the optical regime) but with (\simeq 57) times lower detection time in terms of ROC curve metric. The performance of the QTC detection protocol experiment setup could be further improved with a higher transmission of the reference photon and better detector time uncertainty. Furthermore, the probe photons in the QTC detection protocol are completely indistinguishable from the background noise and therefore useful for covert ranging applications. Finally, our technological platform is highly scalable as well as tunable and thus amenable to large scale integration, which is necessary for practical applications.
The detection of objects under large background conditions is a problem of fundamental interest in sensing. In this talk we theoretically analyze a prototype target detection protocol, the quantum time correlated (QTC) detection protocol, with spontaneous parametric down-converted photon-pair sources. The QTC detection 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 total probe photon transmission estimation problem. We carry out experiments using a semiconductor waveguide source. The experimental results agree very well with the theoretical prediction. In particular, we find that in a high-level environment noise and loss, the QTC detection protocol is able to achieve comparable to the classical protocol target detection performance but with 10–100 fold lower required time on target detection in terms of ROC curve metric. The performance of the QTC detection experiment setup could be further improved with a higher transmission of the reference photon and better detector time uncertainty. Furthermore, unlike classical target detection and ranging protocol, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.