A Quantum-Enhanced Radar Prototype

Abstract

We have built and evaluated a prototype quantum radar in the laboratory which operates at microwave frequencies. Because the signal generation process relies on quantum mechanical principles, the system is considered to contain a quantum-enhanced radar transmitter. This transmitter generates a pair of entangled microwave signals and transmits one of them through free space, where the one-way signal is measured using a simple and rudimentary receiver. The type of entanglement used is called two-mode squeezed vacuum (TMSV), so we may call our radar a quantum two-mode squeezing radar (QTMS radar). At the heart of the transmitter is a device called a Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA), which generates the entangled microwave beams; these are then sent through a chain of amplifiers. One beam passes through 0.5 m of free space; the other is measured directly. The two measurement results are correlated in order to distinguish noise from signal. We compare this quantum-enhanced transmitter to a similar one using only conventional components, and find that there is a significant gain when the two systems broadcast signals at approximately the same power.