This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9648, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Invited Panel Discussion, and Conference Committee listing.

We present a case-study in using specialized, physics-based software for high-fidelity environment and electro-optical sensor modeling in order to produce simulated sensor data that can be used to train a multi-spectral perception system for unmanned ground vehicle navigation. This case-study used the Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment (VANE) to simulate filtered, multi-spectral imaging sensors. The VANE utilizes ray-tracing and hyperspectral material properties to capture the sensor-environment interaction. In this study we focus on a digital scene of the ERDC test track in Vicksburg, MS that has extremely detailed representation of the vegetation and ground texture. The scene model is used to generate imagery that simulates the output of specialized terrain perception hardware developed by Southwest Research Institute, which consists of stereo pair of 3-channel cameras. The perception system utilizes stereo processing, the multi-spectral responses, and image texture features in order to create a 3-dimensional world model suitable for offroad vehicle navigation, providing depth information and an estimated terrain class label for every pixel by utilizing machine learning. While the process of training the perception system generally involves hand-labeling data collected through manned missions, the ability to generate data for certain environments and lighting conditions represents an enabling technology for deployment in new theaters. We demonstrate an initial capability to simulate data and train the perception system and present the results compared to the system trained with real-world data from the same location.

Thermal infrared imaging is a field of science that evolves rapidly. Scientists have used for years the simplest tool: thermal broadband cameras. These allow to perform target characterization in both the longwave (LWIR) and midwave (MWIR) infrared spectral range. Infrared thermal imaging is used for a wide range of applications, especially in the combustion domain. For example, it can be used to follow combustion reactions, in order to characterize the injection and the ignition in a combustion chamber or even to observe gases produced by a flare or smokestack. Most combustion gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), selectively absorb/emit infrared radiation at discrete energies, i.e. over a very narrow spectral range. Therefore, temperatures derived from broadband imaging are not reliable without prior knowledge of spectral emissivity. This information is not directly available from broadband images. However, spectral information is available using spectral filters. In this work, combustion analysis was carried out using a Telops MS-IR MW camera, which allows multispectral imaging at a high frame rate. A motorized filter wheel allowing synchronized acquisitions on eight (8) different channels was used to provide time-resolved multispectral imaging of combustion products of a candle in which black powder has been burnt to create a burst. It was then possible to estimate the temperature by modeling spectral profiles derived from information obtained with the different spectral filters. Comparison with temperatures obtained using conventional broadband imaging illustrates the benefits of time-resolved multispectral imaging for the characterization of combustion processes.

A hyperspectral imaging system was implemented using active illumination in the 3-4-μm band from an MgO:PPLN ultrafast optical parametric oscillator. Using a staring configuration based on a high-resolution mid-IR camera it was possible to distinguish between liquid chemicals based on their absorption characteristics, demonstrating the potential for standoff detection of a wide range of liquids.

In the past few decades, laser imaging has demonstrated its potential in delivering accurate range images of objects or scenes, even at long range or under bad weather conditions (rain, fog, day and night vision). We note great improvements in the conception and development of single and multi infrared sensors, concerning embedability, circuitry reading capacity, or pixel resolution and sensitivity, allowing a wide diversity of applications (i.e. enhanced vision, long distance target detection and reconnaissance, 3D DSM generation). Unfortunately, it is often difficult to dispose of all the instruments to compare their performance for a given application. Laser imaging simulation has shown to be an interesting alternative to acquire real data, offering a higher flexibility to perform this sensors comparison, plus being time and cost efficient. In this paper, we present a 3D laser imaging end-to-end simulator using a focal plane array with Geiger mode detection, named LANGDOC. This work aims to highlight the interest and capability of this new generation of photo-diodes arrays, especially for airborne mapping and surveillance of high risk areas.

A common surveillance problem is the automatic detection of objects concealed under clothing and the identification of those carrying them. As many 2D methods rely on texture information, the application of patterned clothing can be used to camouflage features that may provide a clue as to the shape of the object hidden beneath. Photometric stereo (PS) is a 3D surface reconstruction technique utilising several images of an object, lit from multiple directions, a particular advantage of which is that it reliably separates textural elements, such as printed patterns, from physical shape offering many possibilities for concealed object detection. The success of such a technique is primarily dependent on the ability to artificially illuminate the subject considerably more brightly than the ambient lighting. At night, this is readily plausible; and longer wavelength, near-infrared (nIR) lighting allows us to capture the images covertly. However in daytime, sunlight can prevent sufficient illumination of the subject to calculate the surface image, especially at long range. Certain wavelengths of light are attenuated by airborne moisture considerably more than others. By using a wavelength of light that is heavily attenuated by the atmosphere, in combination with a narrow bandpass filter, we show that it is possible to provide sufficient lighting contrast to perform PS over much longer distances than in previous work. We examine the 940nm wavelength, which falls within one of these spectral regions and evaluate sensor technology equipped with a “black silicon” CMOS, offering extreme light sensitivity, against cameras using traditional silicon sensors, with application to long distance surface reconstruction using PS. Having shown that we can produce reconstructions of considerably better quality than those from traditional cameras, we present several methods for the reliable detection of concealed objects and recognition of faces, using the high level of surface detail that PS can provide.

The use of mathematical models to predict the overall performance of an electro-optic (EO) system is well-established as a methodology and is used widely to support requirements definition, system design, and produce performance predictions. Traditionally these models have been based upon cascades of transfer functions based on established physical theory, such as the calculation of signal levels from radiometry equations, as well as the use of statistical models. However, the performance of an EO system is increasing being dominated by the on-board processing of the image data and this automated interpretation of image content is complex in nature and presents significant modelling challenges. Models and simulations of EO systems tend to either involve processing of image data as part of a performance simulation (image-flow) or else a series of mathematical functions that attempt to define the overall system characteristics (parametric). The former approach is generally more accurate but statistically and theoretically weak in terms of specific operational scenarios, and is also time consuming. The latter approach is generally faster but is unable to provide accurate predictions of a system’s performance under operational conditions. An alternative and novel architecture is presented in this paper which combines the processing speed attributes of parametric models with the accuracy of image-flow representations in a statistically valid framework. An additional dimension needed to create an effective simulation is a robust software design whose architecture reflects the structure of the EO System and its interfaces. As such, the design of the simulator can be viewed as a software prototype of a new EO System or an abstraction of an existing design. This new approach has been used successfully to model a number of complex military systems and has been shown to combine improved performance estimation with speed of computation. Within the paper details of the approach and architecture are described in detail, and example results based on a practical application are then given which illustrate the performance benefits. Finally, conclusions are drawn and comments given regarding the benefits and uses of the new approach.

Compressive sensing (CS) theory states that a signal which can be sparsely represented in a known basis may be reconstructed from its samples which have been obtained below the Nyquist rate. Image reconstruction with a single detector using CS theory has been shown to give promising results. In this work, we investigate the application of CS theory to single detector infrared (IR) rosette scanning systems. The single detector pseudo-imaging rosette scanning system scans the scene with a specific pattern and performs processing to estimate the target location without forming an image. These systems suffer from low performance compared to costly focal plane array (FPA) detectors. Using the CS framework, these scanning systems may be improved by reconstructing the samples obtained by the rosette scanning pattern. For this purpose, we consider surface to air engagement scenarios where the IR images contain aerial targets and flares. The IR images have been reconstructed from samples obtained with the rosette scanning pattern and other baseline sampling strategies. It has been shown that the proposed scheme exhibits good reconstruction performance and large size FPA imaging performance can be achieved using a single IR detector with a rosette scanning pattern.

The infrared (IR) cameras plays an important role in the measurement and analysis of object signature. However, especially the scientific IR cameras that are used for research and military purposes have manual focusing system that reduces the sensitivity and reliability of the measurement taken. Camera autofocus algorithms extract various features from the camera images in order to define a measure for determining the most focused camera image instance. In this work, a no-reference image quality measure is modified and the modified measure is proposed for the autofocus of infrared cameras. Experimental results show that the proposed measure can be used in the problem of autofocus of infrared cameras, successfully.

A growing number of applications like surveillance, thermography, or automotive demand for infrared imaging systems. Their imaging performance is significantly influenced by the alignment of the individual lenses. Besides the lateral orientation of lenses, the air spacing between the lenses is a crucial parameter. Because of restricted mechanical accessibility within an assembled objective, a non-contact technique is required for the testing of these parameters. So far, commercial measurement systems were not available for testing of IR objectives since most materials used for infrared imaging are non-transparent at wavelengths below 2 μm. We herewith present a time-domain low coherent interferometer capable of measuring any kind of infrared material (e.g., Ge, Si, etc.) as well as VIS materials. The set-up is based on a Michelson interferometer in which the light from a broadband superluminescent diode is split into a reference arm with a variable optical delay and a measurement arm where the sample is placed. On a detector, the reflected signals from both arms are superimposed and recorded as a function of the variable optical path. Whenever the group delay difference is zero, a coherence peak occurs and the relative distances of the lens surfaces are derived from the optical delay. In order to penetrate IR materials, the instrument operates at 2.2 μm. Together with an LWIR autocollimator, this technique allows for the determination of centering errors, lens thicknesses and air spacings of assembled IR objective lenses with a micron accuracy. It is therefore a tool for precision manufacturing and quality control.

The paper considers the use of holographic interferometer for hologram re-recording with correction of distortions. Each optical system contains some beam path deviations, called aberrations of the optical system. They are seen in the resulting interference pattern as a distortion of fringes. While increasing the sensitivity of the interference pattern by N times at the same time we introduce new aberrations, caused by re-recording setup in addition to aberrations that are already presented on the interferogram, caused by initial recording, also multiplied by N times. In this experiment we decided to use a modified setup with spatially combined interferograms with use of matrix spatial light modulator and digital image processing of the interferograms recorded by CCD or CMOS camera.

Pyroelectric infrared detectors are used in many commercial and industrial applications. These by nature are “single ended” and thus any electronic perturbation from an external or internal source such as AC pickup or from a nearby RF or other sources of noise can be coupled onto the detector’s output signal. This is in contrast to other IR detectors such as thermopiles, thermistor bolometers and others which are much lower impedance and don’t require these impedance converters are often used in the differential mode. In practice each electrode forming the capacitor is directly connected to an impedance converting amplifier. While exposed to a changing IR signal the capacitor produces current which flows out of one electrode and must be balanced by an equal but opposite current from the other electrode. When these two signals are connected to separate impedance converters the outputs are the same but of opposite sense. When these are connected to a differential amplifier the output is doubled while all the common mode artifact is canceled out. (Patent Pending) The noise in this configuration is primarily from the impedance converters. However as this noise is random it only RMS’s, thus it is only increased by a factor of 1.41 thus the D* of a detector connected will be increased by this factor This connection will work with any pyroelectric material with current or voltage mode impedance conversion and configurations such as parallel or series with and without temperature fluctuation compensation and of course with standard single elements.

Following clear technological trends, the cooled IR detectors market is now in demand for smaller, more efficient and higher performance products. This demand pushes products developments towards constant innovations on detectors, read-out circuits, proximity electronics boards, and coolers. Sofradir was first to show a 10μm focal plane array (FPA) at DSS 2012, and announced the DAPHNIS 10μm product line back in 2014. This pixel pitch is a key enabler for infrared detectors with increased resolution. Sofradir recently achieved outstanding products demonstrations at this pixel pitch, which clearly demonstrate the benefits of adopting 10μm pixel pitch focal plane array-based detectors. Both HD and XGA Daphnis 10μm products also benefit from a global video datapath efficiency improvement by transitioning to digital video interfaces. Moreover, innovative smart pixels functionalities drastically increase product versatility. In addition to this strong push towards a higher pixels density, Sofradir acknowledges the need for smaller and lower power cooled infrared detector. Together with straightforward system interfaces and better overall performances, latest technological advances on SWAP-C (Size, Weight, Power and Cost) Sofradir products enable the advent of a new generation of high performance portable and agile systems (handheld thermal imagers, unmanned aerial vehicles, light gimbals etc...). This paper focuses on those features and performances that can make an actual difference in the field.

Airborne platforms, such as UAV’s, with Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) sensors can cover multiple square kilometers and produce large amounts of video data. Analyzing all data for information need purposes becomes increasingly labor-intensive for an image analyst. Furthermore, the capacity of the datalink in operational areas may be inadequate to transfer all data to the ground station. Automatic detection and tracking of people and vehicles enables to send only the most relevant footage to the ground station and assists the image analysts in effective data searches. In this paper, we propose a method for detecting and tracking vehicles in high-resolution WAMI images from a moving airborne platform. For the vehicle detection we use a cascaded set of classifiers, using an Adaboost training algorithm on Haar features. This detector works on individual images and therefore does not depend on image motion stabilization. For the vehicle tracking we use a local template matching algorithm. This approach has two advantages. In the first place, it does not depend on image motion stabilization and it counters the inaccuracy of the GPS data that is embedded in the video data. In the second place, it can find matches when the vehicle detector would miss a certain detection. This results in long tracks even when the imagery is of low frame-rate. In order to minimize false detections, we also integrate height information from a 3D reconstruction that is created from the same images. By using the locations of buildings and roads, we are able to filter out false detections and increase the performance of the tracker. In this paper we show that the vehicle tracks can also be used to detect more complex events, such as traffic jams and fast moving vehicles. This enables the image analyst to do a faster and more effective search of the data.

The proliferation of Infrared technology and imaging systems enables a different perspective to tackle many computer vision problems in defense and security applications. Infrared images are widely used by the law enforcement, Homeland Security and military organizations to achieve a significant advantage or situational awareness, and thus is vital to protect these data against malicious attacks. Concurrently, sophisticated malware are developed which are able to disrupt the security and integrity of these digital media. For instance, illegal distribution and manipulation are possible malicious attacks to the digital objects. In this paper we explore the use of a new layer of defense for the integrity of the infrared images through the aid of information hiding techniques such as watermarking. In this context, we analyze the efficiency of several optimal decoding schemes for the watermark inserted into the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) domain of the IR images using an additive spread spectrum (SS) embedding framework. In order to use the singular values (SVs) of the IR images with the SS embedding we adopt several restrictions that ensure that the values of the SVs will maintain their statistics. For both the optimal maximum likelihood decoder and sub-optimal decoders we assume that the PDF of SVs can be modeled by the Weibull distribution. Furthermore, we investigate the challenges involved in protecting and assuring the integrity of IR images such as data complexity and the error probability behavior, i.e., the probability of detection and the probability of false detection, for the applied optimal decoders. By taking into account the efficiency and the necessary auxiliary information for decoding the watermark, we discuss the suitable decoder for various operating situations. Experimental results are carried out on a large dataset of IR images to show the imperceptibility and efficiency of the proposed scheme against various attack scenarios.

Infrared (IR) cameras are widely used in latest surveillance systems because spectral characteristics of objects provide valuable information for object detection and identification. To assist the surveillance system operator and automatic image processing tasks, fusing images in IR band is proposed as a solution to increase situational awareness and different fusion techniques are developed for this purpose. Proposed techniques are generally developed for specific scenarios because image content may vary dramatically depending on the spectral range, the optical properties of the cameras, the spectral characteristics of the scene, and the spatial resolution of the interested targets in the scene. A general purpose IR image fusion technique that is suitable for real-time applications is proposed. The proposed technique can support different scenarios by applying a multiscale detail detection and can be applied to images captured from different spectral regions of the spectrum by adaptively adjusting the contrast direction through cross checking between the source images. The feasibility of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated on registered multi-spectral and multi-focus IR images. Fusion results are presented and the performance of the proposed technique is compared with the baseline fusion methods through objective and subjective tests. The technique outperforms baseline methods in the subjective tests and provide promising results in objective quality metrics with an acceptable computational load. Besides, the proposed technique preserves object details and prevents undesired artifacts better than the baseline techniques in the image fusion scenario that contains four source images.

Small target detection in the clutter infrared image is a tough but significant work. In this paper, we will propose a novel small target detection method. First, Graph Laplacian regularization is utilized to model similarity feature of graph structure in the image. And Graph Laplacian regularization is incorporated in the background estimation model to preserve edges of background in single frame infrared image. At last, the edge-preserving estimated background is eliminated from original image to get foreground image which is used to detect the small target. Experimental results show that our proposed method can achieve edge-preserving estimation of background, suppress clutter efficiently, and get better detection results.

The UV image intensifier is one kind of electric vacuum imaging device based on principle of photoelectronic imaging. To achieve solar-blind detection, its spectral response characteristic is extremely desirable. A broad spectrum response measurement system is developed. This instrument uses EQ-99 laser-driven light source to get broad spectrum in the range of 200 nm to 1700 nm. A special preamplifier as well as a test software is work out. The spectral response of the image intensifier can be tested in the range of 200~1700 nm. Using this spectrum response measuring instrument, the UV image intensifiers are tested. The spectral response at the spectral range of 200 nm to 600 nm are obtained. Because of the quantum efficiency of Te-Cs photocathode used in image intens ifier above 280nm wavelength still exists, especially at 280 nm to 320nm.Therefore, high-performance UV filters is required for solar blind UV detection. Based on two sets of UV filters, the influence of solar radiation on solar blind detection is calculated and analyzed.

In recent years, precision guided weapons play more and more important role in modern war. The development and applications of infrared imaging guidance technology have been paid more and more attention. And with the increasing of the complexity of mission and environment, precision guided weapons make stricter demand for infrared imaging seeker. The demands for infrared imaging seeker include: high detection sensitivity, large dynamic range, having better target recognition capability, having better anti-jamming capability and better environment adaptability. To meet the strict demand of weapon system, several important issues should be considered in high-performance infrared imaging seeker design. The mission, targets, environment of infrared imaging guided missile must be regarded. The tradeoff among performance goal, design parameters, infrared technology constraints and missile constraints should be considered. The optimized application of IRFPA and ATR in complicated environment should be concerned. In this paper, some design considerations for high-performance infrared imaging seeker were discussed.

In order to satisfy the reliability demand of the long-life satellite, and solve the weak link, we design an kind of the long service life integration CES (LFICES). In order to solve the problem from the late resistance increased product life, we perform the high torque motor technology research. Then we performed the accelerated life test of the rotating device. In the accelerated life test, we simulated operation of eight years, and the test results showed that the rotating device meet the design requirements of eight years. In this paper, we gives the design scheme of the LFICES. The telemetering data of the 26th remote sensing satellite in-orbit flight shows that the LFICES can stably work．

Currently photo- and videocameras are widespread parts of both scientific experimental setups and consumer applications. They are used in optics, radiophysics, astrophotography, chemistry, and other various fields of science and technology such as control systems and video-surveillance monitoring. One of the main information limitations of photoand videocameras are noises of photosensor pixels. Camera’s photosensor noise can be divided into random and pattern components. Temporal noise includes random noise component while spatial noise includes pattern noise component. Spatial part usually several times lower in magnitude than temporal. At first approximation spatial noises might be neglected. Earlier we proposed modification of the automatic segmentation of non-uniform targets (ASNT) method for measurement of temporal noise of photo- and videocameras. Only two frames are sufficient for noise measurement with the modified method. In result, proposed ASNT modification should allow fast and accurate measurement of temporal noise. In this paper, we estimated light and dark temporal noises of four cameras of different types using the modified ASNT method with only several frames. These cameras are: consumer photocamera Canon EOS 400D (CMOS, 10.1 MP, 12 bit ADC), scientific camera MegaPlus II ES11000 (CCD, 10.7 MP, 12 bit ADC), industrial camera PixeLink PLB781F (CMOS, 6.6 MP, 10 bit ADC) and video-surveillance camera Watec LCL-902C (CCD, 0.47 MP, external 8 bit ADC). Experimental dependencies of temporal noise on signal value are in good agreement with fitted curves based on a Poisson distribution excluding areas near saturation. We measured elapsed time for processing of shots used for temporal noise estimation. The results demonstrate the possibility of fast obtaining of dependency of camera full temporal noise on signal value with the proposed ASNT modification.

State of the art micromirror DMD spatial light modulators (SLM) offer unprecedented framerate up to 30000 frames per second. This, in conjunction with high speed digital camera, should allow to build high speed optical encryption system. Results of modeling of digital information optical encryption system with spatially incoherent illumination are presented. Input information is displayed with first SLM, encryption element - with second SLM. Factors taken into account are: resolution of SLMs and camera, holograms reconstruction noise, camera noise and signal sampling. Results of numerical simulation demonstrate high speed (several gigabytes per second), low bit error rate and high crypto-strength.

Quantum random number generation (QRNG) and quantum key distribution (QKD) are the first applications of quantum physics at the level of individual quanta that have matured into commercial products. Both have been commercially available for over 10 years and increasingly adopted in information security systems. Current efforts focus on standardization and certification of QRNG and QKD devices and their components in order to validate the technology and enable more widespread adoption. Since no official certification scheme specific to quantum devices has been devised so far, alternative options must be investigated. This paper describes our approaches and efforts to enable compliance of commercial QRNG and QKD network devices with security standards such as AIS 20/31¹ and FIPS 140-2.²

We report here a new side channel attack on a practical continuous-variable (CV) quantum key distribution (QKD) system. Inspired by blinding attack in discrete-variable QKD, we formalize an attack strategy by inserting an external light into a CV QKD system implemented Gaussian-modulated coherent state protocol and show that our attack can compromise its practical security. In this attack, we concern imperfections of a balanced homodyne detector used in CV QKD. According to our analysis, if one inserts an external light into Bob’s signal port, due to the imperfect subtraction from the homodyne detector, the leakage of the external light contributes a displacement on the homodyne signal which causes detector electronics saturation. In consequence, Bob’s quadrature measurement is not linear with the quadrature sent by Alice. By considering such vulnerability, a potential Eve can launch a full intercept-resend attack meanwhile she inserts an external light into Bob’s signal port. By selecting proper properties of the external light, Eve actively controls the induced displacement value from the inserted light which results saturation of homodyne detection. In consequence, Eve can bias the excess noise due to the intercept-resend attack and the external light, such that Alice and Bob believe their excess noise estimation is below the null key threshold and they can still share a secret key. Our attack shows that the detector loopholes also exist in CV QKD, and it seems influence all the CV QKD systems using homodyne detection, since all the practical detectors have finite detection range.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) needs to close the big gap between theory and practice to be a suitable technology for achieving information-theoretic secure communications. Indeed, recent studies on side-channel attacks have exposed the vulnerabilities of QKD implementations against an eavesdropper who may try to attack both the source and the measurement device. Here, we review two potential approaches that, combined, could bring this goal closer: measurement-device-independent QKD and the loss-tolerant QKD protocol. The former removes all possible side-channels from the measurement apparatus and guarantees a high performance over long distances. The latter appears as a robust solution against typical source flaws and it offers similar key rates as those of standard QKD systems. Most importantly, the feasibility of both solutions has already been demonstrated in several lab and field-test experiments.

In conventional quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols, the information leak to an eavesdropper is estimated through the basic principle of quantum mechanics dictated in the original version of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The amount of leaked information on a shared sifted key is bounded from above essentially by using information-disturbance trade-off relations, based on the amount of signal disturbance measured via randomly sampled or inserted probe signals. Here we discuss an entirely different avenue toward the private communication, which does not rely on the information disturbance trade-off relations and hence does not require a monitoring of signal disturbance. The independence of the amount of privacy amplification from that of disturbance tends to give it a high tolerance on the channel noises. The lifting of the burden of precise statistical estimation of disturbance leads to a favorable finite-key-size effect. A protocol based on the novel principle can be implemented by only using photon detectors and classical optics tools: a laser, a phase modulator, and an interferometer. The protocol resembles the differential-phase-shift QKD protocol in that both share a simple binary phase shift keying on a coherent train of weak pulses from a laser. The difference lies in the use of a variable-delay interferometer in the new protocol, which randomly changes the combination of pulse pairs to be superposed. This extra randomness has turned out to be enough to upper-bound the information extracted by the eavesdropper, regardless of how they have disturbed the quantum signal.

We consider two remote parties connected to a relay by two quantum channels. To generate a secret key, they transmit coherent states to the relay, where the states are subject to a continuous-variable (CV) Bell detection. We study the ideal case where Alice's channel is lossless, i.e., the relay is locally in her lab and the Bell detection is perfomed with unit efficiency. This configuration allows us to explore the optimal performances achievable by CV measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution. This corresponds to the limit of a trusted local relay, where the detection loss can be re-scaled. Our theoretical analysis is confirmed by an experimental simulation where 10^-4 secret bits per use can potentially be distributed at 170km assuming ideal reconciliation.

To enable space-based quantum key distribution proposals the Centre for Quantum Technologies is developing a source of entangled photons ruggedized to survive deployment in space and greatly miniaturised so that it conforms to the strict form factor and power requirements of a 1U CubeSat. The Small Photon Entangling Quantum System is an integrated instrument where the pump, photon pair source and detectors are combined within a single optical tray and electronics package that is no larger than 10 cm x 10 cm x 3 cm. This footprint enables the instrument to be placed onboard nanosatellites or the CubeLab structure aboard the International Space Station. We will discuss the challenges and future prospects of CubeSat-based missions.

The present work is focused on the description of a SPAD-based pixel suitable for random bits extraction. Compared to the state-of-the-art, the proposed approach aims at improving the performance of the random generator with respect to possible photon flux variation. Thanks to the adopted methodology, the entropy of the output is maintained almost constant over a wide range of operating conditions. The principle has been validated through simulations and implemented in a compact pixel, suitable for array implementation.

We investigate theoretically the spontaneous four-wave mixing (FWM) process that occurs in optical waveguides, as a source of quantum correlated photon-pairs. We consider that the waveguide used to implement the spontaneous FWM process presents a high value of nonlinear parameter, γ = 93.4 W^-1m^-1, and a non-negligible value of loss coefficient, α = 133.3 dB/m. Moreover, the theoretical model also consider the Raman scattering that inevitably accompanies the FWM process, and generates time-uncorrelated (noise) photon pairs. We use the coincident-to-accidental ratio (CAR) as a figure of merit of the photon pair source, and we were able to observe a CAR of the order of 65 in a high loss regime. After, we use the time-correlated photon pairs generated by the spontaneous FWM process to implement a heralded single photon source at waveguide output. In this scenario, the detection of one photon of the pair heralds the presence of the other photon. The quality of the source was studied by the evaluation of the second order coherence function for one photon of the pair conditioned by the detection of its twin photon. We observe that the presence of a high loss coefficient tends to improve the quality of the photon source, when compared with the lossless regime, even considering the Raman noise photons. We obtain a value for the conditional second order coherence function of the order of 0.11 in absence of loss, and a value of 0.03 for a loss coefficient of 133.3 dB/m.

This short paper presents an overview of the theoretical and technological under-pinnings of D-Wave quantum annealing systems and surveys some methodological challenges that arise when benchmarking these highly unusual systems.

In this paper, we provide an introduction to quantum annealers, which are analogue quantum computing devices, and their potential application to solve hard optimisation problems. We summarise our benchmarks performed on a "Wave Two" machine by Canadian company D-Wave Systems Inc.

We present a classification of quantum public-key encryption protocols. There are six elements in quantum public-key encryption: plaintext, ciphertext, public-key, private-key, encryption algorithm and decryption algorithm. According to the property of each element which is either quantum or classical, the quantum public-key encryption protocols can be divided into 64 kinds. Among 64 kinds of protocols, 8 kinds have already been constructed, 52 kinds can be proved to be impossible to construct and the remaining 4 kinds have not been presented effectively yet. This indicates that the research on quantum public-key encryption protocol should be focus on the existed kinds and the unproposed kinds.