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arXiv:1108.6002 · Physical Review Letters

Useful Multiparticle Entanglement and Sub-Shot-Noise Sensitivity in Experimental Phase Estimation

Roland Krischek, Christian Schwemmer, Witlef Wieczorek, Harald Weinfurter, Philipp Hyllus, Luca Pezzè, Augusto Smerzi

Published Aug 19, 2011• 125 citations
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Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a general criterion to identify entangled states useful for the estimation of an unknown phase shift with a sensitivity higher than the shot-noise limit. We show how to exploit this entanglement on the examples of a maximum likelihood as well as of a Bayesian phase estimation protocol. Using an entangled four-photon state we achieve a phase sensitivity clearly beyond the shot-noise limit. Our detailed comparison of methods and quantum states for entanglement enhanced metrology reveals the connection between multiparticle entanglement and sub-shot-noise uncertainty, both in a frequentist and in a Bayesian phase estimation setting.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.107.080504

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We experimentally demonstrate a general criterion to identify entangled states useful for the estimation of an unknown phase shift with a sensitivity higher than the shot-noise limit. We show how to exploit this entanglement on the examples of a maximum likelihood as well as of a Bayesian phase estimation protocol. Using an entangled four-photon state we achieve a phase sensitivity clearly beyond the shot-noise limit. Our detailed comparison of methods and quantum states for entanglement enhanced metrology reveals the connection between multiparticle entanglement and sub-shot-noise uncertainty, both in a frequentist and in a Bayesian phase estimation setting.
It is well known that classical states of light exhibit shot noise, characteristic of independent or uncorrelated particles. For phase estimation problems, this leads to a shot-noise limited uncertainty of 1/sqrt[N], where N is the number of particles detected. It is also well known that the shot-noise limit is not fundamental: squeezed states and entangled states can be used for sub-shot-noise phase measurements. The uncertainty principle sets a fundamental limit of 1/N, known as the "Heisenberg" limit. We have recently demonstrated a method, using parametric downconversion and post-selection, to generate entangled "NOON" states suitable for sub-shot-noise phase measurements [M.W. Mitchell et al, Nature 429, 161 (2004)]. We generated a three-photon NOON state and demonstrated three-fold improvement in phase resolution with this state. The relationship between phase resolution and phase uncertainty depends on prior information about the phase being estimated. As in the case of phase measurements with squeezed states, extra precision in one dimension is gained at the cost of reduced precision in other dimensions. Only when prior information is incorporated can entangled-state metrology be applied to beat the shot-noise limit. We illustrate this relationship and discuss adaptive strategies for phase estimation and the possibility of reaching the Heisenberg limit.
Advancements in physics are often motivated/accompanied by advancements in our precision measurements abilities. The current generation of atomic and optical interferometers is limited by shot noise, a fundamental limit when estimating a phase shift with classical light or uncorrelated atoms. In the last years, it has been clarified that the creation of special quantum correlations among particles, which will be called here useful entanglement, can strongly enhance the interferometric sensitivity. Pioneer experiments have already demonstrated the basic principles. We are probably at the verge of a second quantum revolution where quantum mechanics of many-body systems is exploited to overcome the limitations of classical technologies. This review illustrates the deep connection between entanglement and sub shot noise sensitivity.
Advancements in physics are often motivated/accompanied by advancements in our precision measurements abilities. The current generation of atomic and optical interferometers is limited by shot noise, a fundamental limit when estimating a phase shift with classical light or uncorrelated atoms. In the last years, it has been clarified that the creation of special quantum correlations among particles, which will be called here useful entanglement, can strongly enhance the interferometric sensitivity. Pioneer experiments have already demonstrated the basic principles. We are probably at the verge of a second quantum revolution where quantum mechanics of many-body systems is exploited to overcome the limitations of classical technologies. This review illustrates the deep connection between entanglement and sub shot noise sensitivity.
We investigate the connection between the shot-noise limit in linear interferometers and particle entanglement. In particular, we ask whether sub-shot-noise sensitivity can be reached with all pure entangled input states of NNN particles if they can be optimized with local operations. Results on the optimal local transformations allow us to show that for N=2N=2N=2 all pure entangled states can be made useful for sub-shot-noise interferometry while for N>2N>2N>2 this is not the case. We completely classify the useful entangled states available in a bosonic two-mode interferometer. We apply our results to several states, in particular to multiparticle singlet states and to cluster states. The latter turn out to be practically useless for sub-shot-noise interferometry. Our results are based on the Cramer-Rao bound and the Fisher information.
The Fisher information FFF gives a limit to the ultimate precision achievable in a phase estimation protocol. It has been shown recently that the Fisher information for a linear two-mode interferometer cannot exceed the number of particles if the input state is separable. As a direct consequence, with such input states the shot-noise limit is the ultimate limit of precision. In this work, we go a step further by deducing bounds on FFF for several multiparticle entanglement classes. These bounds imply that genuine multiparticle entanglement is needed for reaching the highest sensitivities in quantum interferometry. We further compute similar bounds on the average Fisher information F‾\overline{F}F for collective spin operators, where the average is performed over all possible spin directions. We show that these criteria detect different sets of states and illustrate their strengths by considering several examples, also using experimental data. In particular, the criterion based on F‾\overline{F}F is able to detect certain bound entangled states.