Optimal control of coherent light scattering for binary decision problems
Abstract
Due to quantum noise fluctuations, the rate of error achievable in decision problems involving several possible configurations of a scattering system is subject to a fundamental limit known as the Helstrom bound. Here, we present a general framework to calculate and minimize this bound using coherent probe fields with tailored spatial distributions. As an example, we experimentally study a target located in between two disordered scattering media. We first show that the optimal field distribution can be directly identified using a general approach based on scattering matrix measurements. We then demonstrate that this optimal light field successfully probes the presence of the target with a number of photons that is reduced by more than two orders of magnitude as compared to unoptimized fields.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2108.03755,
title = {Optimal control of coherent light scattering for binary decision problems},
author = {Dorian Bouchet and Lukas M. Rachbauer and Stefan Rotter and Allard P. Mosk and Emmanuel Bossy},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.03755},
year = {2021}
}