Abstract

Quantum illumination protocols can be implemented to improve imaging performance in the low photon flux regime even in the presence of both background light and sensor noise. However, the extent to which this noise can be rejected is limited by the rate of accidental correlations resulting from the detection of photon or noise events that are not quantum-correlated. Here we present an improved protocol that rejects up to ≳99.9% of background light and sensor noise in the low photon flux regime, improving upon our previous results by an order of magnitude. This improvement, which requires no information regarding the scene or noise statistics, will enable extremely low light quantum imaging techniques to be applied in environments previously thought difficult and be an important addition to the development of covert imaging, quantum microscopes, and quantum LIDAR.

Details

Title
Noise rejection through an improved quantum illumination protocol
Author
Gregory, T 1 ; P-A, Moreau 2 ; Mekhail, S 1 ; Wolley, O 1 ; Padgett, M J 1 

1  University of Glasgow, School of Physics and Astronomy, Glasgow, UK (GRID:grid.8756.c) (ISNI:0000 0001 2193 314X) 
2  University of Glasgow, School of Physics and Astronomy, Glasgow, UK (GRID:grid.8756.c) (ISNI:0000 0001 2193 314X); National Cheng Kung University, Department of Physics, Tainan, Taiwan (GRID:grid.64523.36) (ISNI:0000 0004 0532 3255); NCKU, Center for Quantum Frontiers of Research and Technology, Tainan, Taiwan (GRID:grid.412040.3) (ISNI:0000 0004 0639 0054) 
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01122-8
ProQuest document ID
2594891506
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.