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IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO)

Geometric Interpretation of Quantum-Optimum Detection for Weak Optical Signals

Victor A. Vilnrotter

Published Mar 7, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The mathematical structure of the quantum-optimum detection operators for optical signals is derived, and approximated in a three-dimensional number-state basis for the case of weak optical signals. It is shown that mathematical rotation of the received signal-states in Hilbert-space approaches the quantum-optimum detection performance for optical signals such as On-Off Keying (OOK), BPSK (binary phase-shift keying), and binary Pulse Position Modulation (2-PPM) signaling formats originating from interplanetary or even greater interstellar distances. The approximate three-dimensional number-state model is interpreted to help identify the physical operations required to implement the quantum-optimum receiver with well-known field-preparation and signal-processing techniques for these three modulation formats. Graphs demonstrating the practical performance of receivers approximated by three-dimensional detection operators are evaluated, and compared with the theoretical limit on ideal receiver performance dictated by the laws of quantum mechanics.

DOI
10.1109/aero66936.2026.11519908

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The mathematical structure of the quantum-optimum detection operators for optical signals is derived, and approximated in a three-dimensional number-state basis for the case of weak optical signals. It is shown that mathematical rotation of the received signal-states in Hilbert-space approaches the quantum-optimum detection performance for optical signals such as On-Off Keying (OOK), BPSK (binary phase-shift keying), and binary Pulse Position Modulation (2-PPM) signaling formats originating from interplanetary or even greater interstellar distances. The approximate three-dimensional number-state model is interpreted to help identify the physical operations required to implement the quantum-optimum receiver with well-known field-preparation and signal-processing techniques for these three modulation formats. Graphs demonstrating the practical performance of receivers approximated by three-dimensional detection operators are evaluated, and compared with the theoretical limit on ideal receiver performance dictated by the laws of quantum mechanics.
The fundamental performance limits and channel capacity of optical communications systems operating over the free space channel will be examined using quantum detection theory. The performance of the optimum quantum receiver for on-off keying (OOK) and optical binary phase shift keying (BPSK) is first examined as a pure state (no noise) problem. The classical capacity of the binary symmetric channel for these two modulation schemes is then evaluated for the optimum quantum receiver by making use of the concept of quantum measurement states. The performance of M-ary pulse position modulation, which requires a product state representation, is evaluated along with the performance of certain 'dense signal sets.' Performance comparisons with classical techniques shows over 5 dB improvement in some cases when quantum detection is employed. As a further application of the quantum detection theory, the capacity of the binary channel with on-off keyed modulation and quantum detection is evaluated, and shown to exceed the capacity obtained with classical photon counting.
The fundamental performance limits of optical communications over the freespace channel are developed using quantum theory, and presented in terms of concepts familiar to communications engineers. The compact Dirac notation generally employed in quantum mechanics is defined, and key concepts necessary for understanding quantum projection measurements are reviewed. A derivation that provides significant insights into the quantum measurement performed by the optimum receiver is developed by interpreting the familiar technique of photon counting in terms of quantum projection operators. The performance of the optimum quantum receiver for on–off keying and optical binary phase-shift-keying (BPSK) modulation is treated first as a noise-free (or pure-state) problem, then extended to include the effects of background radiation. The performance of the optimum quantum receiver is compared to that of classical optical receivers employing photon-counting and coherent detection techniques, and it is shown to be exponentially better in most cases.
The fundamental performance limits and channel capacity of optical communications systems operating over the free-space channel will be examined using quantum detection theory. The performance of the optimum quantum receiver for on{ofi keying and optical binary phase-shift keying is flrst examined as a pure-state (no-noise) problem. The classical capacity of the binary symmetric channel for these two modulation schemes will be evaluated for the optimum quantum receiver by making use of the concept of quantum measurement states. The performance of M-ary pulse-position modulation, which requires a product state representation, will be evaluated along with the performance of certain dense signal sets. Performance comparisons with classical techniques show an improvement of over 5 dB in some cases when quantum detection is employed. As a further application of the quantum detection theory, the capacity of the binary channel with on{ofi keyed modulation and quantum detection is evaluated and shown to exceed the capacity obtained with classical photon counting.
The fundamental performance limits and channel capacity of optical commu-nications systems operating over the free-space channel will be examined using quantum detection theory. The performance of the optimum quantum receiver for on{ofi keying and optical binary phase-shift keying is flrst examined as a pure-state (no-noise) problem. The classical capacity of the binary symmetric channel for these two modulation schemes will be evaluated for the optimum quantum receiver by making use of the concept of quantum measurement states. The performance of M-ary pulse-position modulation, which requires a product state representation, will be evaluated along with the performance of certain dense signal sets. Perfor-mance comparisons with classical techniques show an improvement of over 5 dB in some cases when quantum detection is employed. As a further application of the quantum detection theory, the capacity of the binary channel with on{ofi keyed modulation and quantum detection is evaluated and shown to exceed the capacity obtained with classical photon counting. I.
Construction method of an optical receiver is proposed for binary squeezed state signal, which has substantially lower noise properties than a conventional coherent state signal. The receiver can extract most of the performance of a squeezed light. Condition of optimum degree of squeezing are given to the proposed receivers for a binary phase-shift-keyed (BPSK) and an amplitude shift keyed (ASK) signals, respectively. It is also shown that the concept of this receiver can be applied for signals in any other quantum state which is generated from a coherent state by a unitary transformation.
Born about a century ago, Quantum Mechanics has revolutionized the description and the interpretation of Physics at sub-microscopic level. In the last decades, due to the influence of mathematical and engineering research fields, Quantum Mechanics has given birth to related research areas like Quantum Computation, Quantum Information and Quantum Communication. With the discovery of the laser, and later the development of fiber optics and satellite networks, Quantum Communication and Quantum Optics seems to have a natural field of application in Communication Systems. Despite this, the interest in this technology and studies for communication purpose has been overshadowed by the great results in communication networks achieved in the last decades with classical paradigms. However, due to the increasing demand of communication data rate, system designers are now looking at Quantum Mechanics for new and more performanting solutions in communication purposes. Early theoretical studies on Quantum Discrimination Theory and Quantum Information predict better performance for Communication Systems that take advantage of the quantum laws. In addition, Quantum Mechanics provides the deepest description of the physical phenomena, and there are scenarios where a quantum model fits best, as in in deep space communications, where the received signal is really weak, or in a satellite networks, where we are interested in strongly reducing the power of transmitted signals, possibly without sacrificing performance significantly. However, if on one side Quantum Communication Theory promises great gains in the performance of communication systems, on the other hand it fails to describe how to implement physical devices that reach these ultimate limits. So far, only a few architectures achieving these performances are known, and only for simple modulation formats. We are interested in the scenario of optical communications, where the message transmitted is encoded in a sequence of coherent states. Transmitter devices for coherent modulation are well known and consist in laser pulse generators. Instead, receiver implementations working at the quantum limit performance limit are yet to be found. In this Thesis I deal with different topics in the quantum transmission scenario. First, I review existing classical (suboptimal) and quantum (suboptimal and optimal) receiver schemes for the binary coherent modulation. I present a new formulation of the optimal scheme known as Dolinar Receiver with the multiple copies problem, focusing on the information gained during the measurement. Second, I analyze the binary communication in a noisy environment, studying the error probability and the capacity of the binary channel induced. Given the description of the quantum channel, I optimize both the transmitted quantum states and the measurement operators employed in the communication. Third, I consider the Pulse Position Modulation, that is particularly suitable for space and satellite communication due to its simplicity of implementation and high capacity. I review some known suboptimal receivers, and I propose a receiver scheme which approaches the limit performance predicted with quantum theory outperforming the existing schemes. To sum up the results of this Thesis, in order to approach the limit performance predicted by Quantum Mechanics, an optimization is always necessary to exceed the classical effects and trigger the quantum phenomena. In particular, the information gained during the measurement plays an important role, for example in the definition of adaptive receivers. In this Thesis both these aspects have been deeply investigated.