Quantum Radar

In the past recent years, there is a growing interest in using quantum properties for sensing applications. Quantum properties such as entanglement and superposition can be exploited to increase sensitivity and resolution of a sensor which otherwise is unthinkable in a classical counterpart. It has been proposed that these ideas can be extended to radar applications and one can build full-fledged quantum radars. However there is a limited literature on the subject and lack of clarity exists on the concept of quantum radar. So far, the discussion has mainly been around entanglement of photons and creation of two correlated beams such that one beam illuminates a given target while the second is kept back. The reflected/returned beam is made to interfere with the kept beam at a detector.
As part of the thesis, we would like to ask the following questions- 1) definition of a quantum radar, 2) what it can do, and 3) quantification of the advantages over a classical radar and way forward.

RADAR/LIDAR? This question will be tackled while defining the Q Radar. This would be the first task of the project and will be settled during the first year of the project.

Background to build upon: As the QT Hub for Sensors and Metrology is developing sensors, there is an appetite to move things more and more to application domains. As part of it, we initiated cross-disciplinary 4th year project to assess and analyze the impact of quantum oscillators on the performance of current radar systems, which are classical in their functioning. The main out come of the project is that QT could improve the performance by many orders. The project drew expertise from EE (Chris Baker) and QT Hub (Yeshpal Singh). Building upon this outcome, we started to think of the idea of quantum radar.

This is a cross disciplinary work involving the school of Physics & Astronomy, and the school of Electrical Engineering. The phd work will be carried out within UK NQT Hub in Sensors and Metrology.