Optimal and two-step adaptive quantum detector tomography

Abstract: Quantum detector tomography is a fundamental technique for calibrating quantum devices and performing quantum engineering tasks. In this paper, we design optimal probe states for detector estimation based on the minimum upper bound of the mean squared error (UMSE) and the maximum robustness. We establish the minimum UMSE and the minimum condition number for quantum detectors and provide concrete examples that can achieve optimal detector tomography. In order to enhance the estimation precision, we also propose a two-step adaptive detector tomography algorithm to optimize the probe states adaptively based on a modified fidelity index. We present a sufficient condition on when the estimation error of our two-step strategy scales inversely proportional to the number of state copies. Moreover, the superposition of coherent states is used as probe states for quantum detector tomography and the estimation error is analyzed. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of both the proposed optimal and adaptive quantum detector tomography methods.