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arXiv:2404.00496

Reducing of the Uncertainty Product of Coherent Light through Multi-Photon Interference

Sang-Bae Kim, Joachim Stohr, Fabıan Rotermund, Byoung Seung HAM

Published Mar 30, 2024• 1 citation
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Abstract

We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally how the diffraction and interferometric resolution limit for single-mode coherent cw laser light can be overcome by multi-photon interference. By use of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, operated in the single input and single or double output port geometries, we observe a fringe width reduction of the conventional interference pattern, predicted by the wave or single photon quantum theory, by a factor of up to $1/\sqrt{2N}$ through coincident detection of $N=2,3,4$ photons. Our scheme does not require squeezed or entangled light to overcome the standard quantum limit and greatly facilitates precision interferometry experiments.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2404.00496

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We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally how the diffraction and interferometric resolution limit for single-mode coherent cw laser light can be overcome by multi-photon interference. By use of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, operated in the single input and single or double output port geometries, we observe a fringe width reduction of the conventional interference pattern, predicted by the wave or single photon quantum theory, by a factor of up to 1/2N1/\sqrt{2N}1/2N​ through coincident detection of N=2,3,4 photons. Our scheme does not require squeezed or entangled light to overcome the standard quantum limit and greatly facilitates precision interferometry experiments.
We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally how the diffraction and interferometric resolution limit for single-mode coherent cw laser light can be overcome by multi-photon interference. By use of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, operated in the single input and single or double output port geometries, we observe a fringe width reduction of the conventional interference pattern, predicted by the wave or single photon quantum theory, by a factor of up to 1/2N1/\sqrt{2N}1/2N​ through coincident detection of N=2,3,4 photons. Our scheme does not require squeezed or entangled light to overcome the standard quantum limit and greatly facilitates precision interferometry experiments.
Over the past several decades, single photon-based path interference in double-slit experiment has been well demonstrated for the particle nature of photons satisfying complementarity theory, where the quantum mechanical interpretation of the single photon interference fringe is given by Born rule for complex amplitudes in measurements. Unlike most conventional methods using entangled photon pairs, here, a classical coherent light source is directly applied for the proof of the same self-interference phenomenon. Instead of double slits, we use a Mach-Zehnder interferometer as usual, where the resulting self-interference fringe of coherent single photons is exactly the same as that of the coherent photon ensemble of the laser, demonstrating that the classical coherence based on the wave nature is rooted in the single photon self-interference. This unexpected result seems to contradict our common understanding of decoherence phenomena caused by multi-wave interference among bandwidth distributed photons in coherence optics.
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.
Pairs of 826.8-nm correlated photons, generated by parametrically down-converting 413.4-nm krypton-ion laser light, are directed into a single Mach-Zehnder interferometer such that each photon of the pair enters a different input port. The rate of coincidence at the two output ports displays oscillations (as the path-length difference is swept) with a spatial period equal to the 413-nm wavelength of the pump photons, and with a visibility of 62% when the path-length difference exceeds the coherence length of the individual photon beams. This unequivocally demonstrates the nonclassical and entangled nature of the two-photon state.
Quantum metrology overcomes standard precision limits by exploiting collective quantum superpositions of physical systems used for sensing, with the prominent example of non-classical multiphoton states improving interferometric techniques. Practical quantum-enhanced interferometry is, however, vulnerable to imperfections such as partial distinguishability of interfering photons. Here we introduce a method where appropriate design of the modal structure of input photons can alleviate deleterious effects caused by another, experimentally inaccessible degree of freedom. This result is accompanied by a laboratory demonstration that a suitable choice of spatial modes combined with position-resolved coincidence detection restores entanglement-enhanced precision in the full operating range of a realistic two-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer, specifically around a point which otherwise does not even attain the shot-noise limit due to the presence of residual distinguishing information in the spectral degree of freedom. Our method highlights the potential of engineering multimode physical systems in metrologic applications.