Comparison Of Snr Between Classical And Quantum Imager

Quantum imagers have been demonstrated in the laboratory by several groups. However, there are many practical concerns that must be considered in order to make such a system as successful as classical imagers in field applications. Consequently, we develop a model for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to estimate the performance of a quantum imager In comparison with that of the classical case. We assume simple architectures for both systems with components in the two as common to each other as possible. Comparisons between the imagers arc made under conditions of solar background for ranges up to 2 km. The performance of quantum imager is shown to be superior to that of the classical case under conditions of narrow joint (or coincidence) detection windows and very strong pumping of the spontaneous parametric downconverter illumination source, for which the degree of photon entanglement may be severely degraded.