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arXiv:1002.0684 · Physical Review Letters

Classical Bound for Mach-Zehnder Superresolution

I. Afek, O. Ambar, Yaron R. Silberberg

Published Mar 24, 2010• 28 citations

Abstract

The employment of path-entangled multiphoton states enables measurement of phase with enhanced precision. It is common practice to demonstrate the unique properties of such quantum states by measuring superresolving oscillations in the coincidence rate of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Similar oscillations, however, have also been demonstrated in various configurations using classical light only; making it unclear what, if any, are the classical limits of this phenomenon. Here we derive a classical bound for the visibility of superresolving oscillations in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. This provides an easy to apply, fundamental test of nonclassicality. We apply this test to experimental multiphoton coincidence measurements obtained using photon number resolving detectors. Mach-Zehnder superresolution is found to be a highly distinctive quantum effect.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.104.123602

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A pair of light quanta with different colors (155.9-nm difference in center wavelength) generated from parametric down-conversion was injected collinearly into one input port of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Coincidence interference behavior was studied over a wide range of optical path differences of the interferometer. A measurement of 75% interference visibility with oscillation of the pump frequency for a large optical path difference of the interferometer (43 cm) is the signature of a quantum two-photon entangled state, which reflects both particle and wave nature of the light quanta in one experiment.

Superresolution is a unique quantum feature generated by N00N states or phase-controlled coherent photons via projection measurements in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). Superresolution has no direct relation with supersensitivity in quantum sensing and has a potential application for the precision measurement of an unknown signal frequency. Recently, phase-controlled quantum erasers have been demonstrated for superresolution using classical light of a continuous-wave laser to overcome the diffraction limit in classical physics and to solve the limited scalability in N00N state-based quantum sensing. Here, a quantum spectrometer is presented for the macroscopic superresolution using phase-controlled spatial light modulators (SLMs) in MZI. For validity, a general solution of the superresolution is derived from the SLM-based projection measurements and an unprecedented resolution is numerically confirmed for an unknown frequency of light.