Using multi-photon entangled input states, we estimate the phase uncertainty in a noiseless Mach–Zehnder interferometer using photon-counting detection. We assume a flat prior uncertainty and use Bayesian inference to construct a posterior uncertainty. By minimizing the posterior variance to get the optimal input states, we first devise an estimation and measurement strategy that yields the lowest phase uncertainty for a single measurement. N00N and Gaussian states are determined to be optimal in certain regimes. We then generalize to a sequence of repeated measurements, using non-adaptive and fully adaptive measurements. N00N and Gaussian input states are close to optimal in these cases as well, and optimal analytical formulae are developed. Using these formulae as inputs, a general scaling formula is obtained, which shows how many shots it would take on average to reduce phase uncertainty to a target level. Finally, these theoretical results are compared with a Monte Carlo simulation using frequentist inference. In both methods of inference, the local non-adaptive method is shown to be the most effective practical method to reduce phase uncertainty.
Using multi-photon entangled input states, we estimate the phase uncertainty in a noiseless Mach–Zehnder interferometer using photon-counting detection. We assume a flat prior uncertainty and use Bayesian inference to construct a posterior uncertainty. By minimizing the posterior variance to get the optimal input states, we first devise an estimation and measurement strategy that yields the lowest phase uncertainty for a single measurement. N00N and Gaussian states are determined to be optimal in certain regimes. We then generalize to a sequence of repeated measurements, using non-adaptive and fully adaptive measurements. N00N and Gaussian input states are close to optimal in these cases as well, and optimal analytical formulae are developed. Using these formulae as inputs, a general scaling formula is obtained, which shows how many shots it would take on average to reduce phase uncertainty to a target level. Finally, these theoretical results are compared with a Monte Carlo simulation using frequentist inference. In both methods of inference, the local non-adaptive method is shown to be the most effective practical method to reduce phase uncertainty.
Abstract Physical realizations of the canonical phase measurement for the optical phase are unknown. Single-shot phase estimation, which aims to determine the phase of an optical field in a single shot, is critical in quantum information processing and metrology. Here we present a family of strategies for single-shot phase estimation of coherent states based on adaptive non-Gaussian, photon counting, measurements with coherent displacements that maximize information gain as the measurement progresses, which have higher sensitivities over the best known adaptive Gaussian strategies. To gain understanding about their fundamental characteristics and demonstrate their superior performance, we develop a comprehensive statistical analysis based on Bayesian optimal design of experiments, which provides a natural description of these non-Gaussian strategies. This mathematical framework, together with numerical analysis and Monte Carlo methods, allows us to determine the asymptotic limits in sensitivity of strategies based on photon counting designed to maximize information gain, which up to now had been a challenging problem. Moreover, we show that these non-Gaussian phase estimation strategies have the same functional form as the canonical phase measurement in the asymptotic limit differing only by a scaling factor, thus providing the highest sensitivity among physically-realizable measurements for single-shot phase estimation of coherent states known to date. This work shines light into the potential of optimized non-Gaussian measurements based on photon counting for optical quantum metrology and phase estimation.
Photon counting measurements are analyzed for obtaining a classical phase parameter in a linear Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) by the use of phase estimation theories. The detailed analysis is made for four cases: (a) coherent states inserted into the interferometer, (b) Fock number state inserted in one input port of the interferometer and the vacuum into the other input port, (c) coherent state inserted into one input port of the interferometer and squeezed-vacuum state into the other input port, and (d) exchanging the first beam splitter of an MZI by a nonlinear system that inserts a NOON (representing a superposition of N particles in the first mode with zero particles in the second mode, and vice versa) state into the interferometer and by using photon counting for parity measurements. The properties of photon counting for obtaining minimal phase uncertainties for the above special cases and for the general case are discussed.
We study a Mach-Zehnder interferometer fed by a coherent state in one input port and vacuum in the other. We explore a Bayesian phase estimation strategy to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve the standard quantum limit independently from the true value of the phase shift and specific assumptions on the noise of the interferometer. We have been able to implement the protocol by using parallel operation of two photon-number-resolving detectors and multiphoton coincidence logic electronics at the output ports of a weakly illuminated Mach-Zehnder interferometer. This protocol is unbiased, saturates the Cramer-Rao phase uncertainty bound, and, therefore, is an optimal phase estimation strategy.
How to find the specific measurement scheme to approach the quantum Cramér-Rao bound (QCRB) is an important issue in quantum metrology, especially for the continuous-variable optical interferometers input with non-classical states. In the ideal situation (i.e., without any photon loss), this can be usually achieved by using the parity measurement, which, however, does not work well when the photon loss occur. Alternatively, in this work we find that the coincidence measurements are more robust to the photon loss than the parity measurement. Importantly, in certain cases, the sensitivity with the coincidence measurement can even approach very closely to the QCRB despite of the photon loss. Though the results are obtained based on the analysis with the typical two-photon twin-Fock state, it might be also generalized for the other input ones. Thus, our work may provide an effective measurement scheme for beating the shot-noise limit in practical experiments.
Precise measurement of physical quantities plays a crucial role in the development of science and technology.The main purpose of the dissertation is two-fold: to investigate the ultimate precision for estimation of physical quantities using Gaussian states and to propose an efficient method for certification of Bayesian error region in general quantum parameter estimation.In the first part, we begin with analyzing sensitivity for estimating a phase difference in an optical interferometer.Optical interferometry is widely used in science and industry for measuring small displacements.Recently, a large-scale optical interferometer socalled the Laser interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has succeeded in detecting a gravitational wave, the signal of which is extremely small.On the other hand, it has been shown that a non-classical feature of quantum states can improve the sensitivity of estimation, such as in optical interferometer, including the LIGO.From a practical point of view, we inspect the practically achievable precision using non-classical Gaussian states in Mach-Zehnder interferometer with feasible measurements and realistic photon loss.We then investigate the precision of single-mode phase estimation using Gaussian measurement, which can be realized by using homodyne detection, and i show that non-Gaussian measurement is necessary to utilize the power of Gaussian input probes optimally.Finally, we find the optimal measurement for general Gaussian quantum metrology and identify three distinct optimal measurements corresponding to different circumstances.In the second part, we study the Bayesian error region, which is a crucial concept for a general estimation process.When estimating a physical quantity, one has to supply the error interval (single-parameter) or error region (multi-parameter) as well as the estimate.However, it has been shown that as the dimension of quantum systems of interest grows, it becomes intractable to calculate the size and credibility of Bayesian error regions.As an alternative, we derive an analytical expression for the properties, the size and credibility, of Bayesian error regions, in an asymptotic regime.We then propose an efficient numerical method to calculate them for high-dimensional quantum systems even in a non-asymptotic regime.
We discuss an adaptive interferometric approach to quantum estimation of phase shifts. In a first step we find optimized two-mode input states for a generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometer. These two states show a small phase variance at the so-called Heisenberg limit. It turns out that they can be generated by entangling a coherent state and a squeezed vacuum at a beam splitter. Moreover, the interferometric setup allows us to describe an adaptive estimation scheme for arbitrary phase shifts if we assume a fixed mean photon number as a quantum resource.