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arXiv:2111.04062 · Journal of Optics

Noise-tolerant object detection and ranging using quantum correlations

Hashir Kuniyil, Helin Ozel, Hasan Yılmaz, Kadir Durak

Published Aug 15, 2022• 9 citations
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Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1088/2040-8986/ac899c

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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.
Detecting object with low reflectivity embedded within a noisy background is a challenging task. Quantum correlations between pairs of quantum states of light, though are highly sensitive to background noise and losses, offer advantages over traditional illumination methods. Instead of using correlated photon pairs which are sensitive, we experimentally demonstrate the advantage of using heralded single-photons entangled in polarization and path degree of freedom for quantum illumination. In the study, the object of different reflectivity is placed along the path of the signal in a variable thermal background before taking the joint measurements and calculating the quantum correlations. We show the significant advantage of using non-interferometric measurements along the multiple paths for single photon to isolate the signal from the background noise and outperform in detecting and ranging the low reflectivity objects even when the signal-to-noise ratio is as low as 0.03. Decrease in visibility of polarization along the signal path also results in similar observations. This will have direct relevance to the development of single-photon based quantum LiDAR and quantum imaging.
Entangled light sources for illuminating objects offer advantages over conventional illumination methods by enhancing the detection sensitivity of reflecting objects. The core of the quantum advantage lies in effectively exploiting quantum correlations to isolate noise and detect objects with low reflectivity. This work experimentally demonstrates the benefits of using polarization-entangled photon pairs for quantum illumination and shows that the quantum correlation measure, using CHSH value and normalized CHSH value, is robust against losses, noise, and depolarization. We report the detection of objects with reflectivity (η) as low as 0.05 and an object submerged in noise with a signal-to-noise ratio of 0.003 using quantum correlation and residual quantum correlation measures, surpassing previous results. Additionally, we demonstrate that the normalized CHSH value aids in estimating the reflectivity of the detected object. Furthermore, we analyze the robustness of the correlation measure under photon attenuation in atmospheric conditions to show the practical feasibility of real-time applications.
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.
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 ≃57\simeq 57≃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.
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.