Quantum Illumination Radar Using Polarization States of Photons in Atmosphere: Quantum Information Approach

Abstract

The quantum illumination radar uses pairs of entangled photons to enhance the detection sensitivity of a reflecting target. In this paper, we worked on a quantum illumination radar using a pair of entangled photons in polarization in the microwave frequency range in the atmosphere. We studied the quantum information evolution modeling the propagation of a photon in the atmosphere while building two binary decision strategies for the QI radar. We focused on the quantum information evolution showing that the quantum discord representing quantum correlations beyond entanglement could represent an interesting resource to explore for the subject of quantum radar. In addition, we made an approximative estimation of the entanglement survival distance in the atmosphere. Results showed that an optimization should be found to favour the survival of quantum correlations or the signal-to-noise ratios calculated with the binary decision strategy.