Quantum metrology exploits quantum correlations to make precise measurements with limited particle numbers. By utilizing inter- and intramode correlations in an optical interferometer, we find a state that combines entanglement and squeezing to give a sevenfold enhancement in the quantum Fisher information (QFI)---a metric related to the precision---over the shot-noise limit, for low photon numbers. Motivated by practicality we then look at the squeezed cat state, which has recently been made experimentally, and shows further precision gains over the shot-noise limit and a threefold improvement in the QFI over the optimal Gaussian state. We present a conceptually simple measurement scheme that saturates the QFI, and we demonstrate a robustness to loss for small photon numbers. The squeezed cat state can therefore give a significant precision enhancement in optical quantum metrology in practical and realistic conditions.
Quantum metrology exploits quantum correlations to make precise measurements with limited particle numbers. By utilizing inter- and intramode correlations in an optical interferometer, we find a state that combines entanglement and squeezing to give a sevenfold enhancement in the quantum Fisher information (QFI)---a metric related to the precision---over the shot-noise limit, for low photon numbers. Motivated by practicality we then look at the squeezed cat state, which has recently been made experimentally, and shows further precision gains over the shot-noise limit and a threefold improvement in the QFI over the optimal Gaussian state. We present a conceptually simple measurement scheme that saturates the QFI, and we demonstrate a robustness to loss for small photon numbers. The squeezed cat state can therefore give a significant precision enhancement in optical quantum metrology in practical and realistic conditions.
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom(Dated: May 18, 2015)Quantum metrology exploits quantum correlations to make precise measurements with limitedparticle numbers. By maximising the inter- and intra- mode correlations in an optical interferometer,we nd a state that combines squeezing and entanglement to give a 7-fold enhancement in thequantum Fisher information (QFI) over the NOON state for low photon numbers. Motivated bypracticality we then look at the squeezed cat state, which has recently been made experimentally, andshows further precision gains, including a 3-fold improvement in the QFI over the optimal Gaussianstate. We present a simple measurement scheme that saturates the QFI, and then simulate thisscheme to con rm its e ectiveness. Finally, we show that for small photon numbers the squeezedcat state continues to give an advantage even for signi cant losses, allowing us to conclude that thesqueezed cat state can give a signi cant precision enhancement in optical quantum metrology inrealistic conditions.
The quantum Fisher information and quantum correlation parameters are employed to study the application of nonclassical light to the problem of parameter estimation. It is shown that the optimal measurement sensitivity of a quantum state is determined by its intermode correlations (which depends on path entanglement) and intramode correlations (which depends on the photon statistics). In light of these results, we consider the performance of quantum-enhanced optical interferometers. Furthermore, we propose a Heisenberg-limited metrology protocol involving standard elements from passive and active linear optics, for which the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound is saturated with an intensity measurement. Interestingly, the quantum advantage for this scheme is derived solely from the nonclassical photon statistics of the probe state and does not depend on entanglement. We study the performance of this scheme in the presence of realistic losses and consequently predict a substantial enhancement over the shot-noise limit with current technological capabilities.
Quantum metrology employs quantum resources to enhance the measurement sensitivity beyond that can be achieved classically. While multiphoton entangled N00N states can in principle beat the shot-noise limit and reach the Heisenberg limit, high N00N states are difficult to prepare and fragile to photon loss which hinders them from reaching unconditional quantum metrological advantages. Here, we combine the idea of unconventional nonlinear interferometers and stimulated emission of squeezed light, previously developed for the photonic quantum computer Jiuzhang, to propose and realize a new scheme that achieves a scalable, unconditional, and robust quantum metrological advantage. We observe a 5.8(1)-fold enhancement above the shot-noise limit in the Fisher information extracted per photon, without discounting for photon loss and imperfections, which outperforms ideal 5-N00N states. The Heisenberg-limited scaling, the robustness to external photon loss, and the ease-of-use of our method make it applicable in practical quantum metrology at a low photon flux regime.
In optical interferometry path-entangled states such as NOON states have shown to give quantum-enhanced precision measurements, but these states are notoriously fragile to particle losses, which typically collapse the quantum state and destroy the phase information. A class of inherently robust states that show the potential for great improvements over the alternatives are the entangled coherent states (ECSs). We show that these states allow substantial improvements over unentangled `classical' states and highly-entangled NOON states for a wide range of loss values. We then describe a measurement scheme that can be used to measure these states with a precision close to the theoretical bound given by the quantum Fisher information. \nWe then look at the quantum mechanisms that lead to precise measurements. In optical interferometry multi-mode entanglement is often assumed to be the driving force behind quantum enhanced measurements. Recent work has shown this assumption to be false, and here we show that when photon losses occur multi-mode entanglement is actually detrimental to obtaining quantum enhanced measurements. We specifically apply this idea to a superposition of coherent states, demonstrating that these states show a robustness to loss that allows them to significantly outperform their competitors in realistic systems. A practically viable measurement scheme is then presented that allows measurements close to the theoretical bound, even with loss. \nIn this thesis we also consider superpositions of spin coherent states and their application to quantum metrology. Compared to optical states, spin systems have a distinctly different process of decoherence known as non-Markovian dephasing, which has shown to give greatly improved robustness to loss. We see that spin cat states give an enhanced scaling over the shot noise limit, even with dephasing, whilst being realisable with current technology.
Quantum-enhanced interferometers utilize non-classical states of light in order to surpass the limitations imposed by classical physics on phase measurement sensitivity and resolution. We review key scientific developments in this growing field of research and derive fundamental metrology concepts, namely the Cram\'{e}r-Rao bound and the Fisher information, which are used to analyze the metrological performance of quantum states of light. We propose a supersensitive quantum interferometry protocol that can be amplified to the macroscopic realm (i.e. the mean number of photons of the probe state can reach approximately 100,000 photons) using contemporary techniques of spontaneous parametric down conversion. The parity measurement on the output field asymptotically saturates the quantum Cram\'{e}r-Rao bound, which scales like the Heisenberg limit. We uncover the role of photon statistics on phase sensitivity and rule out the necessity of mode entanglement for quantum-enhanced interferometry. Based on these insights we outline a practical metrology technique (independent of mode entanglement) that measures a phase delay of a single-mode anti-squeezing operation. This scheme can also be scaled macroscopically using contemporary techniques and is shown to significantly surpass the shot-noise limit (SNL) in the presence of realistic losses. Finally, the physical resources that enable quantum-enhanced interferometry is studied by analyzing the quantum Fisher information (QFI) using the first quantization and the second quantization formalisms of quantum mechanics. It is shown that increasing the intra-mode correlations of an interferometer (as quantified by the second order Glauber coherence function) can be conducive to attaining a quantum advantage in phase estimation; whereas, introducing mode entanglement can reduce phase sensitivity. Using the first quantization description, we derive a formula for the QFI that shows explicitly how the Heisenberg scaling term depends on particle entanglement.
Abstract In the domain of quantum metrology, cat states have demonstrated their utility despite their inherent fragility with respect to losses. Here, we introduce noise robust optical cat states which exhibit a metrological robustness for phase estimation in the regime of high photon numbers. These cat states are obtained from the intense laser driven process of high harmonic generation (HHG), and show a resilience against photon losses. Focusing on a realistic scenario including experimental imperfections we opt for the case in which we can maximize the lower bound of the quantum Fisher information (QFI) instead of analyzing the best case scenario. We show that the decrease of the QFI in the lossy case is suppressed for the HHG-cat state compared to the even and odd counterparts. In the regime of small losses of just a single photon, the HHG-cat state remains almost pure while the even/odd cat state counterparts rapidly decohere to the maximally mixed state. More importantly, this translates to a significantly enhanced robustness for the HHG-cat against photon loss, demonstrating that high photon number optical cat states can indeed be used for metrological applications even in the presence of losses.