Microwave Quantum Illumination via Cavity Magnonics

TL;DR

This paper proposes a cavity magnonics-based hybrid quantum source for microwave quantum illumination, significantly improving target detection in noisy environments by leveraging entangled microwave-optical resources.

Contribution

It introduces a novel cavity magnonics approach for microwave quantum illumination, enabling generation of quantum resources that outperform existing radar technologies.

Findings

Orders of magnitude lower detection error probability.

Generation of significant microwave-optical quantum resources.

Feasible with current experimental parameters.

Abstract

Quantum illumination (QI) is a quantum sensing protocol mainly for target detection which uses entangled signal-idler photon pairs to enhance the detection efficiency of low-reflectivity objects immersed in thermal noisy environments. Especially, due to the naturally occurring background radiation, the photon emitted toward potential targets more appropriately lies in the microwave region. Here, we propose a hybrid quantum source based on cavity magnonics for microwave QI, where the medium that bridges the optical and the microwave modes is magnon, the quanta of spin wave. Within experimentally accessible parameters, significant microwave-optical quantum resources of interest can be generated, leading to orders of magnitude lower detecting error probability compared with the electro-optomechanical prototype quantum radar and any classical microwave radar with equal transmitted energy.