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IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements & Applications

Virtual Modes for Quantum Illumination

Marco O. Lanzagorta, Jeffrey K. Uhlmann

Published Sep 1, 2018• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum sensing offers theoretical advantages over traditional classical alternatives. In the case of active radio- frequency quantum sensors, however, there exist several practical challenges, the most significant of which is the fast and efficient generation of a large number of entangled microwave photons. In a previous paper we proposed a method, called virtual modes, for mitigating this limitation by using a distributed architecture of quantum sensor units to synthetically increase the effective number of distinguishable modes available for target detection. Although this architecture was shown to incur an increase in noise cross-contamination, we showed that judicious sensor configurations can mitigate this effect. In this paper we examine more sophisticated cross-noise statistical models that permit the number and spatial distribution of sensors to be optimized to further reduce the net detection error probability of the proposed approach.

DOI
10.1109/cama.2018.8530672

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Quantum sensing offers theoretical advantages over traditional classical alternatives. In the case of active radio- frequency quantum sensors, however, there exist several practical challenges, the most significant of which is the fast and efficient generation of a large number of entangled microwave photons. In a previous paper we proposed a method, called virtual modes, for mitigating this limitation by using a distributed architecture of quantum sensor units to synthetically increase the effective number of distinguishable modes available for target detection. Although this architecture was shown to incur an increase in noise cross-contamination, we showed that judicious sensor configurations can mitigate this effect. In this paper we examine more sophisticated cross-noise statistical models that permit the number and spatial distribution of sensors to be optimized to further reduce the net detection error probability of the proposed approach.
Previous works have examined the use of a distributed network of quantum illumination and sensing nodes to augment the available number of distinguishable modes with an additional set of virtual modes. It has been shown that this approach in theory can be applied to achieve a required level of target detection performance within the constraints imposed by the limited rate at which entangled microwave photons can be generated. In this paper we examine how this performance is impacted by the spatial geometry of the network of nodes with respect to the target's range and cross section.
Quantum sensing networks (QSNs) are expected to play a critical role in quantum networks by achieving measurement precision unattainable with classical methods, leveraging quantum properties such as superposition and entanglement. Distributed quantum sensing, a key application of QSNs, can reach Heisenberg-limited precision scaling with the number of sensors involved. However, practical implementation faces significant challenges due to noise effects, complicating the optimal selection of sensor configurations. In this paper, we propose applying a variational quantum algorithm (VQA) combined with a genetic algorithm to efficiently mitigate noise in quantum sensing protocols and to identify high-quality sensor configurations. Performance analysis demonstrates that our approach outperforms traditional sensor configuration methods in single- and multi-parameter sensing scenarios under dephasing and amplitude damping noises, significantly improving quantum sensing accuracy and scalability.
Entanglement is vulnerable to degradation in a noisy sensing scenario, but surprisingly, the quantum illumination protocol has demonstrated that its advantage can survive. However, designing a measurement system that realizes this advantage is challenging since the information is hidden in the weak correlation embedded in the noise at the receiver side. Recent progress in a correlation-to-displacement conversion module provides a route towards an optimal protocol for practical microwave quantum illumination. In this work, we extend the conversion module to accommodate experimental imperfections that are ubiquitous in microwave systems. To mitigate loss, we propose amplification of the return signals. In the case of ideal amplification, the entire six-decibel error-exponent advantage in target detection error can be maintained. However, in the case of noisy amplification, this advantage is reduced to three decibels. We analyze the quantum advantage under different scenarios with a Kennedy receiver in the final measurement. In the ideal case, the performance still achieves the optimal one over a fairly large range of error probability with only on-off detection. Empowered by photon-number-resolving detectors, the performance is further improved and also analyzed in terms of receiver operating characteristic curves. Our findings pave the way for the development of practical microwave quantum illumination systems.
Distributed Sensor Networks are often implemented to overcome some of the challenges presented by a single monostatic sensor system. In this paper we consider the possibility of geographically-distributed quantum radar nodes for improved target detection. Our theoretical design assumes N quantum sensor nodes with transmit-detect capabilities. One of these nodes is chosen to an “entangler node”, which generates entangled photon pairs and uses quantum channels to transmit, swap or teleport the photons to nodes A and B. One of the nodes retains the photon as an idler while the other transmits its photon as the signal. When this process is repeated across several nodes, there is a clear advantage of having different bearing angles to the target among the N nodes. Furthermore, the position and orientation of these sensor nodes could be actively optimized to maximize information about the state of the target. In addition, because the photon frequencies can be chosen to be independent of N, the system generates virtual modes that increase the performance of a single quantum sensor. The proposed design could be generalized to maintain the equivalent of a distributed quantum register among the N nodes so that the sharing of classical information from the detection among the nodes can permit state estimation to be performed in a completely uniform and consistent way. More specifically, each node receives a signal photon which is compared to its idler photon to produce something that relates to the state of the target but is completely non-informative to the individual nodes. It is only when the quantum information from the nodes is received at a secure central node that a full estimate comprising all information about the target from all nodes can be constructed. As we will discuss, the system not only is more information-efficient but also provides a certain level of security because any classical information leakage at a node (i.e., compromised by an adversary) will not actually reveal anything about the state of the target. Therefore, a set of geographically distributed quantum sensors can be treated as a single logical quantum radar device.
Quantum illumination (QI) is a revolutionary photonic quantum sensing paradigm that enhances the sensitivity of photodetection in noisy and lossy environments. In this paper, we propose to use QI in a quantum backscatter communication (QBC), with the aim of increasing the receiver sensitivity beyond the limits of its classical counterpart. One of the practical challenges in microwave QI is the slow rate at which the entangled microwave modes can be generated. Here, we propose to mitigate this problem by using a multiple-input multiple-output antenna system to synthetically increase the number of efficiently- distinguishable modes in the QBC context.