Recycling unmeasured photons in a system utilizing weak measurements can substantially improve the signal-to-noise ratio, even in a double-pass system. We achieve an improvement by a factor of 1.36 over a system without recycling.
In a quantum-noise limited system, weak-value amplification using postselection normally does not produce more sensitive measurements than standard methods for ideal detectors: the increased weak value is compensated by the reduced power due to the small postselection probability. Here, we experimentally demonstrate recycled weak-value measurements using a pulsed light source and optical switch to enable nearly deterministic weak-value amplification of a mirror tilt. Using photon counting detectors, we demonstrate a signal improvement by a factor of 4.4±0.2 and a signal-to-noise ratio improvement of 2.10±0.06, compared to a single-pass weak-value experiment, and also compared to a conventional direct measurement of the tilt. The signal-to-noise ratio improvement could reach around six for the parameters of this experiment, assuming lower loss elements.
Weak value amplification permits small effects to be measured as observable changes at the sacrifice of power due to postselection. The power-recycling scheme has been proven to eliminate this inefficiency of the rare postselection, thus surpassing the limit of the shot noise and improving the precision of the measurement. However, the improvement is strictly limited by the system setup, especially the system loss. Here we introduce a dual-recycling model based on the interferometric weak-value-based deflection measurement. Two mirrors, the power-recycling mirror and signal-recycling mirror, are placed at the bright and dark port of the interferometer, respectively, creating a composite resonator. The results show that both the power and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are greatly enhanced in a wider range of experimental parameters compared to the power-recycling scheme. This work considerably loosens the constraint of the system setup and further explores the real advantage of weak measurement over traditional schemes.