Standard weak measurement with an assistant pointer and single weak interaction constrains measurement precision and quantity of interaction parameters, and a compelling characterization of quantum effect featuring weak-value amplification (WVA) remains elusive. Here, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate an enhanced dual-pointer WVA scheme based on multiple weak interactions and variable spectrum sources. Developing triple weak interactions, momentum P pointer reaches an optimal time-difference precision of $3.34 \times {10^{-5}}$ as at 6 nm spectral width, and intensity I pointer achieves a displacement resolution of 148.8 fm within 400 kHz linewidth. A quantum effect associated with an anomalous weak value is revealed by an observable violation of a Leggett-Garg inequality. The I-pointer weak value is measured to be 1478 using multiple weak interactions and high signal-to-noise detection, achieving a two-order-of-magnitude WVA enhancement compared to standard weak measurement. Our work opens up a practical avenue for minuscule quantumness measurements in challenging environments.
Standard weak measurement with an assistant pointer and single weak interaction constrains measurement precision and quantity of interaction parameters, and a compelling characterization of quantum effect featuring weak-value amplification (WVA) remains elusive. Here, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate an enhanced dual-pointer WVA scheme based on multiple weak interactions and variable spectrum sources. Developing triple weak interactions, momentum P pointer reaches an optimal time-difference precision of 3.34×10−5 as at 6 nm spectral width, and intensity I pointer achieves a displacement resolution of 148.8 fm within 400 kHz linewidth. A quantum effect associated with an anomalous weak value is revealed by an observable violation of a Leggett-Garg inequality. The I-pointer weak value is measured to be 1478 using multiple weak interactions and high signal-to-noise detection, achieving a two-order-of-magnitude WVA enhancement compared to standard weak measurement. Our work opens up a practical avenue for minuscule quantumness measurements in challenging environments.
We introduce an ultrasensitive interferometric protocol that combines weak value amplification (WVA) with traditional interferometry. This protocol WVA+interferometry uses weak value amplification of the relative delay between two paths to enhance interferometric sensitivity. As an example, we demonstrate a proof-of-principle experiment that achieves few-attosecond timing resolution (few nanometer path length resolution) with a double-slit interferometer using only common optical components. Since our example uses only the spatial shift of double-slit interference fringes, its precision is not limited by the timing resolution of the detectors but is instead limited by the fundamental shot noise associated with classical light and the diminished technical noise. We experimentally demonstrate that the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved by one to two orders of magnitude relative to a measurement that does not use WVA. Two key conclusions are drawn: (i) Most conventional interferometric techniques primarily rely on determining the path difference (time delay or longitudinal phase), with their precision constrained by technical noise. Our protocol offers a robust solution for minimizing the technical noise in traditional interferometry, with precision in principle approaching the shot-noise limit. (ii) Although WVA has achieved significant advancements in ultrasensitive longitudinal phase measurement, its applicability is constrained by the need for broad spectral bandwidths and high-resolution spectrometers. Contrary to previous assumptions, we demonstrate that quantum-limited WVA time delay measurements are achievable with narrow band light using real weak values. Thus, the cost-effectiveness and practicality of the proposed WVA+interferometry protocol using narrow band light broaden the scope of WVA applications. This protocol holds potential for broad applications in optical metrology, quantum optics and quantum information, biomedical imaging, and interferometric telescopes for astrophysics.
In quantum weak measurement, a weak value is a quantity related to a pointer shift of a measuring device which is usually determined by pre- and postselection states. For conventional weak measurement, a single weak-value model has been well addressed in precision metrology of time delay, but it only holds for a narrowband light source. To further improve the measurement accuracy, a broad-spectrum light source is needed. We find that the single weak-value model no longer holds, due to the occurrence of modified preselection states. Here, a multiple weak-value model is established by introducing the modified preselection states in the estimation of time delay. For broad-spectrum light source with 50-nm spectral width, the multiple weak-value scheme enables us to achieve a high resolution of $1.6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{as}$. Our proposed multiple weak-value amplification may have important applications in various fields involving precise time-delay detection.
By choosing more orthogonality between preselection and postselection states, one can significantly improve the sensitivity in general optical quantum metrology based on the weak-value amplification (WVA) approach. However, increasing the orthogonality decreases the probability of detecting photons and makes the weak measurement difficult, especially when the weak measurement is disturbed by strong noise and the pointer is drowned in noise with a negative-decibel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this article we introduce and numerically evaluate a modified weak-measurement protocol with a temporal pointer, namely, the autocorrelative weak-value amplification (AWVA) approach. Specifically, a small longitudinal time delay (tiny phase shift) $\ensuremath{\tau}$ of a Gaussian pulse is measured by implementing two simultaneous autocorrelative weak measurements under Gaussian white noise with different SNRs. The small quantities $\ensuremath{\tau}$ are obtained by measuring the autocorrelation coefficient of the pulses instead of fitting the shift of the mean value of the probe in the standard WVA technique. Simulation results show that the AWVA approach outperforms the standard WVA technique in the time domain with smaller statistical errors, remarkably increasing the precision of weak measurement under a strong noise background.
We experimentally evaluate five estimators for weak-value amplification (WVA) using a position pointer to measure birefringence time delays. Two general approaches are considered: measuring the position shift Δx and measuring the probability change ΔPw of successful postselection. Specifically, five estimators are investigated: CCD-detected fringe shift Δx, quadrant photodiode (PDQ) transversal voltage difference (XDIFF), and lock-in amplifier output phase η (for Δx measurement), as well as PDQ total output voltage (SUM) and CCD-detected average photon number Nr (for ΔPw measurement). The measurement precision is characterized by the Allan deviation over a range of input laser powers P0. Generally, measuring the position shift Δx yields higher precision than measuring the probability change ΔPw. At P0=0.5~mW, corresponding to a laser-power-limited regime, direct measurement of the fringe displacement with the CCD achieves a minimum Allan deviation of (5.30±0.10)×10−3~as, approaching the corresponding photon-statistical Cramér--Rao bound (CRB). At P0=50~mW, corresponding to a detector-limited regime, PDQ detection combined with lock-in demodulation provides the best precision, reaching (1.80±0.06)×10−3~as and remaining close to the corresponding CRB. These results demonstrate that the optimal readout depends on the available optical power, detector dynamic range, and technical noise, providing practical guidance for selecting readout strategies in high-precision WVA-based metrology.
Weak-value amplification (WVA) provides a way for amplified detection of a tiny physical signal at the expense of a lower detection probability. Despite this trade-off, due to its robustness against certain types of noise, WVA has advantages over conventional measurements in precision metrology. Moreover, it has been shown that WVA-based metrology can reach the Heisenberg limit using entangled resources, but preparing macroscopic entangled resources remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate a novel WVA scheme based on iterative interactions, achieving the Heisenberg-limited precision scaling without resorting to entanglement. This indicates that the perceived advantages of the entanglement-assisted WVA are in fact due to iterative interactions between each particle of an entangled system and a meter, rather than coming from the entanglement itself. Our work opens a practical pathway for achieving the Heisenberg-limited WVA without using fragile and experimentally demanding entangled resources.
Precision enhancement is demonstrated in an optical spatial measurement based on a weak-value amplification (WVA) system and splitlike detection, by injecting a TEM10 squeezed vacuum beam. We have experimentally realized high-precision optical spatial measurement beyond the shot-noise limit by using squeezing-assisted WVA. Based on the WVA technique, which can amplify the signal by increasing the number of photons that are injected into the interferometer, squeezed-beam injection can reduce the noise level and can further improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). As a result, an SNR improvement of 2 dB, i.e., 1.3 times precision enhancement, can be achieved, and the obtained displacement and tilt sensitivity are 4.96fm/Hz and 0.39prad/Hz, respectively, by using a 2-dB squeezed-beam injection and 2.6% postselection probability in the WVA process. Our work provides an effective method to accomplish higher precision in quantum spatial measurement, which has potential applications in gravitational wave interferometer calibration, super-resolution quantum imaging, etc.