Optimal probes for continuous-variable quantum illumination
Mark P. Bradshaw, Lorcán O. Conlon, Spyros Tserkis, Mile Gu, Ping Koy Lam, Syed M. Assad · Physical Review A · 2021
Quantum illumination is the task of determining the presence of an object in a noisy environment. We determine the optimal continuous-variable states for quantum illumination in the limit of zero object reflectivity. We prove that the optimal single-mode state is a coherent state, while the optimal two-mode state is the two-mode squeezed-vacuum state. We find that these probes are not optimal at nonzero reflectivity, but remain near optimal. This demonstrates the viability of the continuous-variable platform for an experimentally accessible, near optimal quantum illumination implementation.