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arXiv:2405.12870 · Physica Scripta

Multi-parameter estimation of the state of two interfering photonic qubits

Luca Maggio, Danilo Triggiani, Paolo Facchi A, Vincenzo Tamma

Published Jan 28, 2025• 6 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract A two-photon interfering technique based on polarization-resolved measurements is presented for the simultaneous estimation with maximum quantum sensitivity of multiple parameters associated with the polarization state of two interfering photonic qubits. This estimation is achieved by exploiting a novel interferometric technique based on polarization-resolved two-photon interference. The experimental feasibility and accuracy of this technique is shown, even when a limited number of sampling measurements is employed. This work is relevant for the development of quantum technologies with photonic qubits and sheds light on the physics at the interface between multiphoton interference, boson sampling, multi-parameter quantum sensing, and quantum information processing.

DOI
10.1088/1402-4896/adaf7b

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The European Physical Journal Plus•Sep 9, 2025•1 citation
Abstract A two-photon interfering technique based on polarization-resolved measurements is presented for the simultaneous estimation with maximum quantum sensitivity of multiple parameters associated with the polarization state of two interfering photonic qubits. This estimation is achieved by exploiting a novel interferometric technique based on polarization-resolved two-photon interference. The experimental feasibility and accuracy of this technique is shown, even when a limited number of sampling measurements is employed. This work is relevant for the development of quantum technologies with photonic qubits and sheds light on the physics at the interface between multiphoton interference, boson sampling, multi-parameter quantum sensing, and quantum information processing.
We demonstrate the ultimate sensitivity allowed by quantum physics in the estimation of the time delay between two photons by measuring their interference at a beam splitter through frequency-resolving sampling measurements. This sensitivity can be increased quadratically by decreasing the photonic temporal bandwidth even at values smaller than the time delay when standard two-photon interferometers become inoperable and without adapting the path of the reference photon, nor the need of time-resolving detectors with an unfeasible high resolution. Applications can range from the more feasible imaging of nanostructures, including biological samples, and nanomaterial surfaces to quantum enhanced estimation based on frequency-resolved boson sampling in optical networks.
We present a quantum sensing protocol for three-dimensional estimation of the difference between the momenta of two photons based on spatially resolved interferometric sampling measurements. The protocol attains ultimate quantum precision in the simultaneous estimation of the components of the relative momentum for any values of the parameters already with ∼2000\sim 2000∼2000 sampling measurements and a bias below 1%1\%1%. These results identify 3D spatially resolved two-photon interference as an efficient tool for multi-parameter quantum sensing, with potential applications in high-precision 3D localization, refractometry, and near-field calibration in free-space quantum technologies.
Optical quantum metrology uses specially-prepared states of light to probe sensitive samples. Choosing a suitable probe state allows one to extract more information per probe photon about an unknown parameter than is possible using any classical technique. In effect, these techniques improve the sensitivity of the measurement whenever the number of probe photons is constrained in some way. This thesis presents experimental and theoretical results on the use of pairs of time-frequency entangled photons in precision measurements. It begins with an overview of necessary background knowledge about quantum optics and quantum information. This is followed by a theoretical discussion on the estimation of a single delay using two-photon interference. We show that constraints on the probe photon's bandwidth complicate the measurement problem, requiring suitable optimization of the two-photon quantum state to avoid losing precision. We then consider the use of two-photon interference for linear spectroscopic measurements. Linear spectroscopy relates the absorption and phase spectrum of a sample to unknown electronic parameters. We describe a proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating that two-photon interferometric spectroscopy can be used for simultaneously measurement of both absorption and phase. This is followed by an information-theoretic discussion of the precision of this technique. For low losses, we show that the method provides phase sensitivity similar to classical interferometry while approaching the optimal absorption precision of any possible measurement. If the absorption and phase values are both related to a single unknown parameter, then our technique provides improved sensitivity to this parameter compared to both classical measurements and other quantum techniques in the presence of realistic levels of loss. We conclude with a discussion of quantum-optical coherence tomography, which is a two-photon interferometric method for determining the material structure of a sample. We present an ongoing experiment which aims to apply the method to tissue-like samples, where the quantum measurement is limited by a poor signal-to-noise ratio. Preliminary results demonstrate that this noise can be largely reduced by suitable frequency-domain filtering. This allows us to precisely determine the position of a scattering center using a few hundred detected photon pairs despite the presence of large amounts of noise. We follow this with a theoretical discussion of signal artifacts which are known to complicate the measured interferogram. We show these artifacts are due to a distinct interferometric effect, which can be distinguished from the signal of interest using the relative time delay between detected photons. We conclude with a brief discussion on possible techniques for artifact removal.
With the rapid development of quantum technologies in recent years, the need for high-sensitivity measuring techniques has become a key issue. In particular, optical sensors based on quantum states of light have proven to be optimal resources for high-precision interferometry. Nevertheless, their performance may be severely affected by the presence of noise or imperfections. In this work, we derive the quantum Fisher information matrix associated with the simultaneous estimation of an interferometric phase and the indistinguishability characterizing the probe state consisting of an even number of photons. We find the optimal measurement attaining the ultimate precision for both parameters in a single setup and perform an experiment based on a pair of photons with an unknown degree of indistinguishability entering a two-port interferometer.
Achieving the ultimate quantum precision in the estimation of multiple physical parameters simultaneously is a challenge in quantum metrology due to fundamental limitations and experimental challenges in harnessing the necessary quantum resources. We propose an experimentally feasible scheme to reach Heisenberg-scaling precision in the simultaneous estimation of two unknown phase parameters in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer by using squeezed and coherent states of light as input and homodyne detections at the outputs. Our results open a new research paradigm in harnessing the full quantum advantage of multiparameter estimation in distributed quantum sensing and quantum information processing, as enabled by multiphoton quantum interference with scalable experimental resources.
Abstract This work presents a quantum sensing interferometric scheme for the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters at the ultimate quantum scaling precision in a two-mode optical network. This scheme is experimentally feasible because it employs input Gaussian states such as squeezed and coherent states and a relatively low number of experimental runs. We focus on the precise and simultaneous measurement of two unknown phase shifts and an unknown beam splitter reflectivity, achieving Heisenberg scaling sensitivity in all three parameters without any constraints on the parameter values.