Quantum rangefinding

Abstract

Quantum light generated in non-degenerate squeezers has many applications such as sub-shot-noise transmission measurements to maximise the information extracted by one photon or quantum illumination to increase the probability in target detection. However, any application thus far fails to consider the thermal characteristics of one half of the bipartite down-converted photon state often used in these experiments. We show here that a maximally mixed state, normally viewed as nuisance, can indeed be used to extract information about the position of an object while at the same time providing efficient camouflaging against other thermal or background light.