Optical coherent state discrimination using a closed-loop quantum measurement

J. M. Geremia

I will describe our experimental progress toward implementing optical quantum state discrimination at the minimum quantum error probability, implemented via a closed-loop measurement. The procedure highlights the enabling role of quantum feedback in quantum information theoretic procedures.

F. E. Becerra

James Moran, Spiros Kechrimparis, Hyukjoon Kwon

Quantum state discrimination plays a central role in quantum information and communication. For the discrimination of optical quantum states, the two most widely adopted measurement techniques are photon detection, which produces discrete outcomes, and homodyne detection, which produces continuous outcomes. While various protocols using photon detection have been proposed for optimal and near-optimal discrimination between two coherent states, homodyne detection is known to have higher error rates, with its minimum achievable error rate often referred to as the Gaussian limit. In this work, we demonstrate that, despite the fundamental differences between discretely labelled and continuously labelled measurements, continuously labelled non-Gaussian measurements can also achieve near-optimal coherent state discrimination. We design two discrimination protocols that surpass the Gaussian limit: one using non-Gaussian unitary operations with homodyne detection, and another based on orthogonal polynomials. Our results show that photon detection is not required for near-optimal coherent state discrimination and that we can achieve error rates close to the Helstrom bound at low energies with continuously labelled measurements. We also find that our schemes maintain an advantage over the photon detection-based Kennedy receiver for a moderate range of coherent state amplitudes.

Jean‐Pierre Gazeau

L. Davidovich

В. Н. Горбачев, Maria V. Chekhova

Feedback is proposed for distinguishing between two weak coherent states with phases differing by ∼π. The mutual nonorthogonality of such states gives rise to a discrimination error, which can be reduced by using feedback. An optical quantum channel is discussed where the input is classical information encoded in two weak coherent states. For a channel with feedback, the discrimination error probability is calculated, and the mutual entropy that quantifies the fidelity between input and output is evaluated. We find that the use of a feedback loop in a quantum communication channel can increase the mutual entropy when canonical position or photon number is measured.