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arXiv:1307.3070 · Physical Review A

Optimal probabilistic measurement of phase

Petr Marek

Published Oct 18, 2013• 6 citations
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Abstract

When measuring the phase of quantum states of light, the optimal single-shot measurement implements a projection on the unphysical phase states. If we want to improve the precision further we need to accept a reduced probability of success, either by implementing a probabilistic measurement or by probabilistically manipulating the measured quantum state by means of noiseless amplification. We analyze the limits of this approach by finding the optimal probabilistic measurement that, for a given rate of success, maximizes the precision with which the phase can be measured.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.88.045802

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When measuring the phase of quantum states of light, the optimal single-shot measurement implements a projection on the unphysical phase states. If we want to improve the precision further we need to accept a reduced probability of success, either by implementing a probabilistic measurement or by probabilistically manipulating the measured quantum state by means of noiseless amplification. We analyze the limits of this approach by finding the optimal probabilistic measurement that, for a given rate of success, maximizes the precision with which the phase can be measured.
Amplification of quantum states is inevitably accompanied with the introduction of noise at the output. For protocols that are probabilistic with heralded success, noiseless linear amplification in theory may still be possible. When the protocol is successful, it can lead to an output that is a noiselessly amplified copy of the input. When the protocol is unsuccessful, the output state is degraded and is usually discarded. Probabilistic protocols may improve the performance of some quantum information protocols, but not for metrology if the whole statistics is taken into consideration. We calculate the precision limits on estimating the phase of coherent states using a noiseless linear amplifier by computing its quantum Fisher information and we show that on average, the noiseless linear amplifier does not improve the phase estimate. We also discuss the case where abstention from measurement can reduce the cost for estimation.
Most of the schemes for ``noiseless'' amplification of coherent states, which have recently been attracting theoretical and experimental interest, share a common trait: The amplification is not truly noiseless, or perfect, for nonzero success probability. While this must hold true for all phase-independent amplification schemes, in this work we point out that truly noiseless amplification is indeed possible, provided that the states which we wish to amplify come from a finite set. Perfect amplification with unlimited average gain is then possible with finite success probability, for example, using techniques for unambiguously distinguishing between quantum states. Such realizations require only linear optics, no single-photon sources, and no photon counting. We also investigate the optimal success probability of perfect amplification of a symmetric set of coherent states. There are two regimes: low-amplitude amplification, where the target amplitude is below one, and general amplification. For the low-amplitude regime, analytic results for the optimal amplification success probabilities can be obtained. In this case a natural bound imposed by the ratio of success probabilities of optimal unambiguous discrimination of the source and amplified states can always be reached. We also show that for general amplification this bound cannot always be satisfied.
Estimation of the properties of a physical system with minimal uncertainty is a central task in quantum metrology. Optical phase estimation is at the center of many metrological tasks where the value of a physical parameter is mapped to the phase of an electromagnetic field and single-shot measurements of this phase are necessary. While there are measurements able to estimate the phase of light in a single shot with small uncertainties, demonstrations of near-optimal single-shot measurements for an unknown phase of a coherent state remain elusive. Here, we propose and demonstrate strategies for single-shot measurements for ab initio phase estimation of coherent states that surpass the sensitivity limit of heterodyne measurement and approach the Cramer-Rao lower bound for coherent states. These single-shot estimation strategies are based on real-time optimization of coherent displacement operations, single photon counting with photon number resolution, and fast feedback. We show that our demonstration of these optimized estimation strategies surpasses the heterodyne limit for a wide range of optical powers without correcting for detection efficiency with a moderate number of adaptive measurement steps. This is, to our knowledge, the most sensitive single-shot measurement of an unknown phase encoded in optical coherent states.
We propose quantum devices that can realize probabilistically different projective measurements on a qubit. The desired measurement basis is selected by the quantum state of a program register. First we analyze the phase-covariant multimeters for a large class of program states and then the universal multimeters for a special choice of program. In both cases we start with deterministic but error-prone devices and then proceed to devices that never make a mistake but from time to time give an inconclusive result. These multimeters are optimized (for a given type of program) with respect to the minimum probability of an inconclusive result. This concept is further generalized to multimeters that minimize the error rate for a given probability of an inconclusive result (or vice versa). Finally, we propose a generalization for qudits.
Quantum information theory is applied to practical interferometer-based phase measurements to deduce the optimal phase measurement scheme with two optical modes. Optimal phase measurements, given ideal input states, reveal an asymptotic 1/n1/n1/n decrease in phase uncertainty $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}$ for nnn the mean photon number of the input state. In contradistinction to previous schemes for realizing the number-phase uncertainty limit, the 1/n1/n1/n limit achieved here is independent of the interferometer phase shift; prior information about the expected phase shift is not necessary to attain this limit. These results apply more generally to su(2) and so(3) phase parameter estimation.