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Advances in photonic quantum sensing

Nature Photonics volume 12, pages 724–733 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Quantum sensing has become a broad field. It is generally related with the idea of using quantum resources to boost the performance of a number of practical tasks, including the radar-like detection of faint objects, the readout of information from optical memories, and the optical resolution of extremely close point-like sources. Here, we first focus on the basic tools behind quantum sensing, discussing the most recent and general formulations for the problems of quantum parameter estimation and hypothesis testing. With this basic background in hand, we then review emerging applications of quantum sensing in the photonic regime both from a theoretical and experimental point of view. Besides the state of the art, we also discuss open problems and potential next steps.

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Fig. 1: Protocols for quantum estimation and discrimination.
Fig. 2: Technological applications of quantum channel discrimination.
Fig. 3: Experimental demonstrations of quantum reading and quantum illumination.
Fig. 4: Proof-of-principle experiments demonstrating a quantum detection scheme able to measure a distance of two incoherent point-like sources better than the Rayleigh limit.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank U. L. Andersen, L. Banchi, Sh. Barzanjeh, J. Borregaard, S. L. Braunstein, V. Giovannetti, S. Guha, C. Lupo, A. Lvovsky, M. Miková, M. Tsang and Z. Zhang for feedback. S.P. would like to specifically thank J. H. Shapiro and A. Farina for discussions on the experimental challenges related with a quantum radar, and R. Nair for the feedback on the experimental challenges in optical super-resolution. S.P. thanks support from the EPSRC via the ‘UK Quantum Communications Hub’ (EP/M013472/1). T.G. would like to acknowledge support from the Danish Research Council for Independent Research (Sapere Aude 4184-00338B) as well as the Innovation Fund Denmark (Qubiz) and the Danish National Research Foundation (Center for Macroscopic Quantum States, bigQ DNRF142).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science and York Centre for Quantum Technologies, University of York, York, UK

    S. Pirandola

  2. Research Laboratory of Electronics, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

    S. Pirandola & S. Lloyd

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY, USA

    B. R. Bardhan

  4. Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, Fysikvej, Kongens, Lyngby, Denmark

    T. Gehring

  5. Xanadu, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    C. Weedbrook

  6. Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

    S. Lloyd

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Pirandola, S., Bardhan, B.R., Gehring, T. et al. Advances in photonic quantum sensing. Nature Photon 12, 724–733 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-018-0301-6

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