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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Heisenberg-limited polarimetry using multiphoton two-mode Fock states

Kazuyuki Muroo, Yoshitaka Takubo

Published Aug 31, 2007• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We show that appropriate nonclassical photon states can attain Heisenberg-limited sensitivity in polarimetric measurements, in which the squared amplitudes of the photon states are measured. These photon states, which can be constructed from the two-mode Fock states, are found as the eigenstates of a Hermitian operator, which is closely related to the quantum Stokes operators. The algebraic property of the Hermitian operator governs the interferometric behavior in polarimetric interactions and provides the frequency of the interferometric fringes scaled by the total number of photons of the state. Thus, the polarimetry is able to achieve Heisenberg-limited sensitivity.

DOI
10.1364/josab.24.002494

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We show that appropriate nonclassical photon states can attain Heisenberg-limited sensitivity in polarimetric measurements, in which the squared amplitudes of the photon states are measured. These photon states, which can be constructed from the two-mode Fock states, are found as the eigenstates of a Hermitian operator, which is closely related to the quantum Stokes operators. The algebraic property of the Hermitian operator governs the interferometric behavior in polarimetric interactions and provides the frequency of the interferometric fringes scaled by the total number of photons of the state. Thus, the polarimetry is able to achieve Heisenberg-limited sensitivity.
We show that the quantum Stokes parameters aptly describe the nonclassical two-polarization-mode Fock states and the transformation of their polarization states. In this description, the two-polarization-mode Fock states are the simultaneous eigenstates of the first and second Stokes parameters. Transformations of the polarization states, which are caused, for example, by optically active media, are described by the rotations in the Stokes vector space, which are given by unitary operators generated from the Hermitian Stokes parameters. The SU(2) symmetry of the Stokes parameters provides two independent degrees of freedom of polarimetric measurements that can exceed the standard quantum limit.
Abstract Classical polarimetry is a well-established discipline with diverse applications across different branches of science. The burgeoning interest in leveraging quantum resources to achieve highly sensitive measurements has spurred researchers to elucidate the behavior of polarized light within a quantum mechanical framework, thereby fostering the development of a quantum theory of polarimetry. In this work, drawing inspiration from polarimetric investigations in biological tissues, we investigate the precision limits of polarization rotation angle estimation about a known rotation axis, in a quantum polarimetric process, comprising three distinct quantum channels. The rotation angle to be estimated is induced by the retarder channel on the Stokes vector of the probe state. The diattenuator and depolarizer channels, acting on the probe state, can be thought of as effective noise processes. We explore the precision constraints inherent in quantum polarimetry by evaluating the quantum Fisher information for probe states of significance in quantum metrology, namely NOON, Kings of Quantumness, and Coherent states. The effects of the noise channels as well as their ordering is analyzed on the estimation error of the rotation angle to characterize practical and optimal quantum probe states for quantum polarimetry. Furthermore, we propose an experimental framework tailored for NOON state quantum polarimetry, aiming to bridge theoretical insights with empirical validation.
Photon number states are assigned a parity of +1 if their photon number is even and a parity of −1 if odd. The parity operator, which is minus one to the power of the photon number operator, is a Hermitian operator and thus a quantum mechanical observable although it has no classical analogue, the concept being meaningless in the context of classical light waves. In this paper we review work on the application of the parity operator to the problem of quantum metrology for the detection of small phase shifts with quantum optical interferometry using highly entangled field states such as the so-called N00N states, and states obtained by injecting twin Fock states into a beam splitter. With such states and with the performance of parity measurements on one of the output beams of the interferometer, one can breach the standard quantum limit, or shot-noise limit, of sensitivity down to the Heisenberg limit, the greatest degree of phase sensitivity allowed by quantum mechanics for linear phase shifts. Heisenberg limit sensitivities are expected to eventually play an important role in attempts to detect gravitational waves in interferometric detection systems such as LIGO and VIRGO.
Parity measurement-based quantum optical interferometry and metrology is known to be sensitive to the joint photon number distribution, , of the two-mode quantum states inside the interferometer. In cases where the statistics display a clustering of the populations around the borders (i.e. along the axes ) with a plateau over most of the interior, Heisenberg-limited (or super-sensitive) measurements of phase shifts are enabled. This follows from the heuristic number-phase uncertainty relation because of the uncertainty in the location of the photons being ΔN ∼ . As an example of the connection between the photon statistics and Heisenberg-limited phase uncertainty, we study parity measurement-based interferometry of the two-mode Barut–Girardello coherent states for SU(1,1)SU(1,1) obtained from the coupling together of two representations of SU(1,1) each associated with single-mode boson realizations with Bargmann indices as discussed by Gerry and Benmoussa [Phys. Rev. A 2000, 62, 033812]. These states generally have distributions with clustered populations along the borders. We demonstrate that these states do, indeed, lead to super-sensitive measurements and also lead to super-resolved interference fringes.
We provide general bounds of phase estimation sensitivity in linear two-mode interferometers. We consider probe states with a fluctuating total number of particles. With incoherent mixtures of states with different total number of particles, particle entanglement is necessary but not sufficient to overcome the shot noise limit. The highest possible phase estimation sensitivity, the Heisenberg limit, is established under general unbiased properties of the estimator. If coherences can be created, manipulated, and detected, the Heisenberg limit can only be set in the central limit, with a sufficiently large repetition of interferometric measurements.