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arXiv:1306.2677 · Physical Review Letters

Optimal Quantum-Enhanced Interferometry Using a Laser Power Source

Matthias D. Lang, Carlton M. Caves

Published Oct 22, 2013• 181 citations
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Abstract

We consider an interferometer powered by laser light (a coherent state) into one input port and ask the following question: what is the best state to inject into the second input port, given a constraint on the mean number of photons this state can carry, in order to optimize the interferometer's phase sensitivity? This question is the practical question for high-sensitivity interferometry. We answer the question by considering the quantum Cramér-Rao bound for such a setup. The answer is squeezed vacuum.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.111.173601

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We consider an interferometer powered by laser light (a coherent state) into one input port and ask the following question: what is the best state to inject into the second input port, given a constraint on the mean number of photons this state can carry, in order to optimize the interferometer's phase sensitivity? This question is the practical question for high-sensitivity interferometry. We answer the question by considering the quantum Cramér-Rao bound for such a setup. The answer is squeezed vacuum.
We address high-precision measurements by active and passive interferometric schemes based on Gaussian states and operations. In particular, we look for the best states to be injected into their ports according to the quantum Cramer–Rao bound, i.e., maximizing the quantum Fisher information over all the involved parameters, given a constraint on the overall mean number of photons entering into the interferometer. We found that for passive interferometers involving only beam splitters, the optimal input leading to Heisenberg scaling is a pair of identical squeezed-coherent states with at most one-third of the total energy employed in squeezing. For active interferometers involving optical amplifiers, input coherent signals are enough to achieve Heisenberg scaling, given an optimal value of the amplification gain. For passive schemes our results clarify the role of squeezing in improving both the reference phase and the signal phase of an interferometer.
We show that the phase sensitivity $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}$ of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer illuminated by a coherent state in one input port and a squeezed-vacuum state in the other port is (i) independent of the true value of the phase shift and (ii) can reach the Heisenberg limit $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\sim}1/{N}_{T}$, where NT{N}_{T}NT​ is the average number of input particles. We also demonstrate that the Cramer-Rao lower bound of phase sensitivity, $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\sim}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1/\sqrt{|\ensuremath{\alpha}{|}^{2}{e}^{2r}+{sinh}^{2}r}$, can be saturated for arbitrary values of the squeezing parameter rrr and the amplitude of the coherent mode $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ by using a Bayesian phase inference protocol.
To achieve the optimal phase sensitivity in two-mode interferometers, one key problem is how to distribute photons between the two input ports, given a fixed total average photon number. In both the SU(2)\text{SU}(2)SU(2) and SU(1,1)\text{SU}(1,1)SU(1,1) interferometers with a product of coherent and Fock states as inputs, we find there exists a critical value of the total photon number, below which the optimal phase sensitivity can be achieved with the second port being the vacuum state. The critical points can be analytically fixed. We further consider a more general input state as a product of coherent and squeezed Fock states. Then we analytically identify three regions in the parameter space, similar to a phase diagram, and find that critical phenomena occur in two regions. If the total average input photon number is less than the critical value, the optimal distribution tends to minimize the average photon number in the second port. Our finding indicates that, in order to get interferometers with high sensitivity, one must carefully choose the photon number distribution according to the value of the input total average photon number. This central result will be useful in theoretical studies in the field of quantum parameter estimation.
We theoretically investigate the phase sensitivity with parity measurement on a Mach–Zehnder interferometer with a coherent state combined with a squeezed number state. Within a constraint on the total mean photon number, we find, via parity measurement, that the mixing of a coherent state and squeezed number state can give better phase sensitivity than mixing a coherent state and squeezed vacuum state when the phase shift deviates from the optimal phase φ =0. In addition, we show that the classical Fisher information for parity measurement saturates the quantum Fisher information when the phase shift approaches to zero. Thus, the quantum Cramér–Rao bound can be reached via the parity measurement in the case of φ =0.
We theoretically investigate the quantum enhanced metrology using two-mode squeezed twin-Fock states and parity detection. Our results indicate that, for a given initial squeezing parameter, compared with the two-mode squeezed vacuum state, both phase sensitivity and resolution can be enhanced when the two-mode squeezed twin-Fock state is considered as an input state of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. Within a constraint on the total photon number, although the two-mode squeezed vacuum state gives the better phase sensitivity when the phase shift φ to be estimated approaches to zero, the phase sensitivity offered by these non-Gaussian entangled Gaussian states is relatively stable with respect to the phase shift itself. When the phase shift slightly deviates from φ = 0, the phase sensitivity can be still enhanced by the two-mode squeezed twin-Fock state over a broad range of the total mean photon number where the phase uncertainty is still below the quantum standard noise limit. Finally, we numerically prove that the quantum Cramér–Rao bound can be approached with the parity detection.
We consider an optical interferometer with coherent light in one input and a squeezed vacuum in another. Such an interferometer is known to beat the standard quantum limit of sensitivity to the difference of phase shifts in its arms. We find the ultimate limit of precision for such an interferometer by calculating the quantum Fisher information of the mixed quantum state in one of the interferometer's outputs about the difference phase. We show that, in the vicinity of the black fringe, this information is asymptotically close to the quantum Fisher information about this phase for the two-mode readout. We conclude that the single-mode readout is optimal for phase estimation in squeezing-enhanced interferometry and allows for the Heisenberg scaling of precision. We also show that the optimal local measurement in the vicinity of the black fringe consists of amplifying the output field in a phase-sensitive way and measuring its photon number.