Quantum Information-Theoretic Analysis of Optical Fiber Sensing via Stimulated Brillouin Scattering

Abstract:Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is a powerful mechanism for distributed sensing in optical fibers, as the Brillouin response is highly sensitive to local material parameters. Assuming the input probe is a quantum state, we develop a quantum-information-theoretic framework for SBS-based fiber sensing and intrusion detection. Starting from a linearized opto-acoustic Hamiltonian, we derive an effective input-output relation for a short fiber segment. We then model each fiber segment as a single-mode bosonic Gaussian channel and the entire fiber as a cascade of quantum channels. We then compute the quantum Fisher information for general SBS-dependent parameters and identify optimal measurement settings to achieve the quantum limit, comparing them with receiver-constrained strategies such as heterodyne detection and photon counting. In addition, we propose an adaptive approach that achieves first-order asymptotic optimality and provides a novel second-order correction to address preliminary miscalibration. As an application, we apply the framework to the fiber-tapping detection problem.

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Optics (physics.optics)

arXiv:2610.12980 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2610.12980v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.12980 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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