Quantum illumination uses quantum correlations to enhance the detection of an object in the presence of background noise. This advantage has been shown to exist even if one uses non-optimal direct measurements on the two correlated modes. Here we present a protocol that mimics the behaviour of quantum illumination, but does not use correlated or entangled modes. Instead, the protocol uses coherent (or phase-randomized coherent) pulses with randomly chosen intensities. The intensities are drawn from a distribution such that the average state looks thermal. Under appropriate conditions, the mimic protocol can perform similarly to quantum illumination schemes that use direct measurements. This holds even for a reflectance as low as 10−7. We also present an analytic condition which allows one to determine the sets of parameters in which each protocol works best.
@article{arxiv.2311.02016,
title = {Using random coherent states to mimic quantum illumination},
author = {Thomas Brougham and Nigam Samantaray and John Jeffers},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.02016},
year = {2023}
}