We propose to use the antisqueezing-enhanced non-Gaussian Schrödinger cat quantum states of the probing light for the task of detection of a given phase shift in optical interferometers. We show that the antisqueezing allows to increase the robustness of the setup to optical losses. We find the optimal degrees of the antisqueezing for experimentally achievable values of the Schrödinger cat amplitude and the optical losses and compare the resulting sensitivity with the one provided by the Gaussian squeezed states.
We propose to use the antisqueezing-enhanced non-Gaussian Schrödinger cat quantum states of the probing light for the task of detection of a given phase shift in optical interferometers. We show that the antisqueezing allows to increase the robustness of the setup to optical losses. We find the optimal degrees of the antisqueezing for experimentally achievable values of the Schrödinger cat amplitude and the optical losses and compare the resulting sensitivity with the one provided by the Gaussian squeezed states.
It is known that non-Gaussian and only non-Gaussian quantum states can be orthogonal to other quantum states. We show here that, due to this feature, using the non-Gaussian (Fock or Schrödinger cat) states of the probing light, it is possible to detect a given phase shift in optical interferometers with vanishing error probability. Squeezing of the probing non-Gaussian quantum state at the input of the interferometer and the proportional anti-squeezing at the output state allow for the improvement of the sensitivity proportionally to the squeeze factor. The optical losses, most notably the non-ideal quantum efficiency of the photodetection, degrade the sensitivity, introducing finite “false positive” and “false negative” detection errors. However, using state-of-the-art photon-number-resolving detectors, it is still possible to obtain smaller detection error probabilities than in the case of Gaussian quantum states.
Abstract We show that injecting a light pulse prepared in the Shrödinger cat quantum state into the dark port of a two-arm interferometer, it is possible to detect a given phase shift unambiguously. The value of this phase shift is inversely proportional to the amplitudes of both the classical carrier light and the Shrödinger cat state. However, an unconventional detection procedure is required for this purpose. By measuring the number of photons at the output dark port, it is possible to detect the phase shift with a vanishing ‘false positive’ probability. The ‘false negative’ probability in this case decreases as the amplitude of the Schrödinger cat state increases and, for reasonable values of this amplitude, can be made less than about 0.1.
We study the improvement in the phase sensitivity of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer using the superposition of Schrödinger’s cat-like state with the Fock state (SCFS) and the coherent state as inputs. With this setup, we examine the effect on phase sensitivity of the interferometer using a two-channel detection (TCD) scheme [ Opt. Express 29 , 95 ( 2021 ) OPEXFF 1094-4087 10.1364/OE.413391 ] in which we take the optimal combination of the intensities of both output ports. We find better phase sensitivity under some conditions for this setup as compared to other known combinations of inputs such as squeezed vacuum and coherent states, vacuum and coherent states, etc. Therefore, we expect that the SCFS may be an alternative nonclassical resource for improvement in the phase sensitivity of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer, having potential application in quantum sensing.
We show that by injecting a light pulse prepared in a non-Gaussian quantum state into the dark port of a two-arm interferometer, it is possible to detect a given phase shift with the fidelity which is limited only by the optical losses and the photodetection inefficiency. The value of the phase shift is inversely proportional to the amplitude of the classical carrier light injected into another (bright) port of the interferometer. It can be reduced by using an additional degenerate parametric amplifier (squeezer) in the input dark port and the matching anti-squeezer in the output dark port. We show that using the modern high-efficiency photon number resolving detectors, it is possible to reduce the detection error by almost one order of magnitude in comparison with the ordinary (Gaussian-state) interferometry.
In a conventional atomic interferometer employing N atoms, the phase sensitivity is at the standard quantum limit: 1/N. Using spin-squeezing, the sensitivity can be increased, either by lowering the quantum noise or via phase amplification, or a combination thereof. Here, we show how to increase the sensitivity, to the Heisenberg limit of 1/N, while increasing the quantum noise by N, thereby suppressing by the same factor the effect of excess noise. The protocol uses a Schrodinger Cat state representing a superposition of two collective states of N atoms, behaving as a single entity with an N-fold increase in Compton frequency. The resulting N-fold phase magnification is revealed by using atomic state detection instead of collective state detection. We also show how to realize an atomic clock based on such a Schrodinger Cat state, with an N-fold increase in the effective transition frequency. We discuss potential experimental constraints for implementing this scheme, using one axis twist squeezing employing the cavity feedback scheme, and show that the effects of cavity decay and spontaneous emission are highly suppressed. We find that the maximum improvement in sensitivity can be close to the ideal limit, for as many as ten million atoms.
In this paper, we are interested in detecting the presence of a nearby phase-sensitive object, where traveling light works out under a low-photon loss rate. Here we investigate the optimal quantum phase estimation with generalized multi-component Schrödinger cat states. In addition, we show the optimal conditions of the generalized multi-component cat states for the phase estimation in a lossless scenario. We then demonstrate that the generalized multi-component cat states can beat the performances of the NOON and two-mode squeezed vacuum states in the presence of small loss, while maintaining the quantum advantage over the standard quantum limit, attainable by coherent states. Finally, we propose a generation scheme of the entangled multi-component cat states with current or near-term optical technologies.