Experimental realisation of quantum illumination

TL;DR

This paper reports the first experimental implementation of quantum illumination using photon-number correlations, demonstrating its robustness to noise and losses, which challenges common beliefs about quantum technology limitations.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental realization of quantum illumination based on photon-number correlations, showing its practical robustness.

Findings

Quantum illumination was successfully implemented experimentally.

The protocol shows strong robustness to noise and losses.

This challenges the idea that quantum technologies are highly fragile.

Abstract

We present the first experimental realisation of the quantum illumination protocol proposed in Ref.s [S. Lloyd, Science 321, 1463 (2008); S. Tan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 253601 (2008)], achieved in a simple feasible experimental scheme based on photon-number correlations. A main achievement of our result is the demonstration of a strong robustness of the quantum protocol to noise and losses, that challenges some widespread wisdom about quantum technologies.