In this article, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally how one can exploit correlations generated in monolithic semiconductor quantum light sources to enhance the performance of optical target detection. A prototype target detection protocol, the quantum time-correlation (QTC) detection protocol, with spontaneous parametric down-converted photon-pair sources, is discussed. The QTC protocol only requires time-resolved photon-counting detection, which is phase-insensitive and therefore suitable for optical target detection. As a comparison to the QTC detection protocol, we also consider a classical phase-insensitive target detection protocol based on intensity detection. We formulated the target detection problem as a probe light transmission estimation problem, and we quantify the target detection performance with the Fisher information criterion and the receiver operation characteristic analysis. Unlike classical target detection and ranging protocols, the probe photons in our QTC detection protocol are completely indistinguishable from the background noise and therefore useful for covert ranging applications. Finally, our technological platform is highly scalable and tunable and thus amenable to large scale integration necessary for practical applications.

中文翻译：

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使用非经典光增强经典目标检测性能


在本文中，我们从理论上和实验上演示了如何利用单片半导体量子光源中产生的相关性来增强光学目标检测的性能。讨论了一种原型目标检测协议，即具有自发参数下转换光子对源的量子时间相关（QTC）检测协议。 QTC协议只需要时间分辨光子计数检测，它是相位不敏感的，因此适合光学目标检测。作为与 QTC 检测协议的比较，我们还考虑基于强度检测的经典相位不敏感目标检测协议。我们将目标检测问题表述为探测光传输估计问题，并利用 Fisher 信息准则和接收器操作特性分析来量化目标检测性能。与经典的目标检测和测距协议不同，我们的 QTC 检测协议中的探测光子与背景噪声完全无法区分，因此对于隐蔽测距应用非常有用。最后，我们的技术平台具有高度可扩展性和可调性，因此适合实际应用所需的大规模集成。